Very cool, Goat. Sounds like a fun day comparing mics. I am not terrible suprised to hear that AKG sounded very good, even Alerion liked the sound, it was the broken mics that soured him on the AKGs, apparently along with some problems getting them repaired. Thanks a lot for posting the results, that is great stuff to read. I will have to do a lot of thinking before I lay down any cash.

I talked some more with Andrew about the AKG mics today. He said he had heard that they had had some problems with a couple of there mics that were a diffrent style/model. He has had the C414 in chapmans for sometime now, uses it on a almost a daily basis, and says he has never had a problem with there mics at all.So I'm wondering if it was just that particular model of akg mic . 

  I'm curious about the BLUE that you have What model is it . They had some we could have tested but I was running short on time yesterday.  He said they use some BLUE mics in the studio and are having good results with them. He mentioned  the Blue Bottle and there was another one.

  I think I should mention the fact, that with the sterling  st66, the first one we tried to test didn't work(bad power supply).  These are a new style of mic coming from china.  They have a new design in the way there building the filaments. The mic had some peaks in the highs that gave it a harsher sound. 

  The AT4040 was much warmer and was not to far off from the nuemann tlm103 (I think the 103 still sounded better) but there is a price diffrence of a couple hundred dollars(retail).

  The sure was slightly better that the AT4040 and about even with the nuemann tlm103.
  I'm gonna say again I was surpised with the quality of sound from the AKG mic. It was the best sounding of the ones we tested, had more features (mutliple patterns and rolloffs).  I'm going to  research some more, about the AKG as far as
Q.C. and  durability.  I don't want to buy a mic and have it break on me.

 IMHO if your looking for a mic under the 600.00 range The AT4040 is a pretty good mic for the price. There are alot of other mics  out there in this price range. If you can hold off and save your money, there is a noticable diffrence from the under 600.00, range to the 900.00 range (Retail prices).

 Not sure if this has helped anybody in purchasing mics. but it was fun.
 

 
 

  

Thanks for the review, Goat. That is the kind of stuff that I am really seeking out. I know Alerions only problem with the AKGs was that they broke and he has had problems getting them fixed. C4000s, I would expect both better support and reliablity from these folks.

I almost forgot about these bad boys. I regularly see new Viennas and Hamburgs on eBay for $300, middle of the range I look at mostly. From what I've read, the Vienna is supposed to sound like the expansice AKGs, and the Hamburg similar to a U87. I've never seen one ina store to test it out, anyone have/use one?

Huh, I went to ADKs website to check out a few mics, used their dealer locator option. I got an email the next day from the president of the company. It was long and chatty, with much to say about various models that he thought would work for me. I had forgotten that; the last time I wrote to them one of their mic designers wrote back and answered my quesiton way more thoroughly than I had expected. They seem really big on providing support. Alerion, this might be the answer. go with a newer company that really cares about their customers; rather than a big company that seems to care more about the profit margins.
Anyway, turns out a music store close to where I work carries the ADKs, and they have allowed me to A/B mics before; so there is a trip to the music store in my future. Whee!
Of course, I will post my NSHOs.

I was reading some reviews on the ADK's and they all are about the same. That they are probably the best microphones made out of China in that price range.  I noticed that you mentioned both the Vienna and the Hamburg mics.  In a couple of the reviews, it was noted, that you could make the Vienna sound like the Hamburg, but could not make the Hamburg sound like the Vienna.  It had to do with the mic eq settings.  Sounds  like a pretty cool company.  I'm gonna check these mics out too. thanks for the post on the ADK.

 edit comments on mics

  I just got some new price listings on mics so some of my earlier post don't hold as the ksm27 is around  $300.00 us retail making it a pretty good mic for the price.
 
The AT4040 is around $300.00 US  retail also a pretty good mic.
 
 The tlm103 is around 900.00 to 1000.00 US retail

  The AKG C414 B-XL II is around 900.00 t0 1000.00 US Retail

Hey guys, I'd like to chime in for a minute if you don't mind.

personally I use an AT3035, which is a relatively 'cheap' ($200 US, wasn't exactly cheap for me and my $6/hr) mic. I love this mic, it has a great response, which is highly accurate but still very warm. The pad is also really nice for high spl's. From what I've heard, the AT4040 is even better, so I would say this is definately one to think about.

Some other mics that haven't been mentioned are the Studio Projects (SP) B3 and C3. Both are multipattern mics, and have gotten good reviews. The C3 is about 325 USD, and the B3 is about 200. I've heard a lot of good things about the C3, so if you really need multipattern, you may spring for this one. Just do some research. Musician's Friend (and Guitar Center) doesn't carry Studio Projects mics, but you can find them on Sweetwater (or ebay).

Also, while we're on the topic of SP, their vtb-1 tube pre is apparently the best you can get for around 100 bucks. The more popular presonus TubePre has gotten several bad reviews, which is where I found this one alluded to. Just something to think about, I haven't personally used it myself.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/manufacturer/Studio+Projects

And hey, as far as used/ebay goes, you can still get brand new mics, never opened, still with warranty and all on ebay. I got my at3035 off ebay, and got a great deal.

Hope this helps!

Thanks to both of you guys for your posts.  looked at an AT4040, but the store was asking about $400, so I went on by. If I could find one for $300 it would be a really good deal. My old dynamic mic is an AT, don't recall the model numberm, and I love the sound.
I don't knw much abut Studio Projects, I will look them up, since you have good reports.
Tried to do an A/B at a local store, they were having technical difficulties and couldn't hook one up. They did offer to let me take one home for a weekend or even a week. I was tempted, but what I want is A/B, not A one week and B the next.  I'll keep looking for a place that will do A/B.
BTW, spotted the Vienna and Hamburg mics for $250 on eBay, and the AKG Perception 400 for $199, all brand-new with all the goodies.

http://www.studioreviews.com/index.htm
http://www.studioreviews.com/vienna-hamburg.htm
http://www.studioreviews.com/v69me.htm
http://www.studioreviews.com/portico5012.htm
http://www.studioreviews.com/b1.htm

Some cool reviews from some knowledgeable people.

Ok Sweetwater price at4040 on sale now.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AT4040/

OK, folks, did the A/B testing yesterday. Mics tested: Audio-Technica AT4040, ADK Vienna, ADK Hamburg. Test setup: mics into a Mackie 1202VLZ with all knobs set straight up, into a good pair of Sony headphones. Results: first run was the Vienna vs the 4040. Unmuted Vienna: quiet, hard to tell it was on. Switched to 4040: WOW! Full sound, no noise. Switched back and forth a few times, brought the gain up on the Vienna until the volume matched the 4040. Now a noticable hiss, quite audible. The 4040 is dead silent other than actual sounds in the store. Changed the Vienna for the Hamburg. Same volume problem, same noise problem. Sound was a bit less brittle than the Vienna, but didn't sound all that good. My take on the whole thing: Yep, gonna go for the 4040. I really like the sound. I may get a friend to double-check me on that, my hearing is not the best, but I liked the sound a lot.

lord knows I am not an expert on any of the newer mics out here... but, I wonder why Acousticcrhis said "I am unimpressed with MXL mics", what was it that was so not great about them?  From what I have read by owners of them, they are fantastic, the only ones dismissing them, are those that say "I don't own one, and I wont, becausethey are cheap, and cheap mic's suck.. You get what you pay for!"  Which of course is Horse's ass logic...  It's baloney, poppycock, and just plain wrong...  

   I have heard so much good about them, that I plan on getting one, and a decent usb interface, w/phantom power, to get it hooked up nice and clean...

 To give an example that one can hear, here is a MXL 990, no compression, no eq, no filters, no reverb, it's just recorded, Here is the link.. http://members.cox.net/plane/MXL990.mp3  
here is his words: "The recording chain was the mic -> M-Box pre -> single track ...that's it. I only did two tracks, one rhythm and one solo. I think I had the sound hole too close to the mic (5 inches maybe?) because of a heavy bass in the rest of the tune (partly in this clip).
I hear some warble, but then I realized that it was me using vibrato It was not a conscious effort.
"
 I hope this helps to show how good the MXL can sound, there is a bit of background noise here is what he says about that: "I am sure the noise is the 3 computers I have running in the background. I really need to work on setting up a proper home studio !!
It might also show how sensitive the condensor is. Maybe if I turn the input down a bit, it might weed out the ambient noise."

BTW, all the guys I talked to about it were in the forum at http://www.studiorecordingengineer.com/  
           JimK

I read what you posted about the MXL  and so I started doing some more research on these. so far I've only seen a couple of bad reviews and one that had to do with mic  durability   these are some good reviews.....
http://www.mxlmics.com/reviews/reviews/08.html
http://www.mxlmics.com/reviews/reviews/09.html

  That said almost every  review that I read said for the money your getting an awesome deal.

 I'm thinking of checking this mic out if it does like the reviewer says I might get it or the one with the two diaphragms one warm and one bright. Thanks for standing up and saying something

 I'm gonna give em a try and see how well they work
                                                                           Greg

i did find this out. I was plsying around with some different mics and i pulled out my chinese large format condenser avlex avs79 (cheap) and was recording some stuff but was not happy with the sound so I grabbed a sure sm58 and started recording  got a much better sound and smoother signal and smoother eq . So just cause you go out and by a large format condenser mic does not mean your going to get anybetter recording that with just a good mic  like a sure or sennheiser.  So from now on when I do mic comparisons I'm going to test them against an old standard sm 58 or 57 just to make sure in the overall quality is that much better.

 I will say for recording  ac guitar the large format condenser does a little better job. but I'm going to get a matched pair of  directional condensers for that.

Sorry folks, been involved in a lot of non-musical stuff lately. I did finally buy the AT-4040 from MF a while ago, and I am very happy with the sound. Using it with my Boss BR-900 is pretty much of a snap, just set it to provide phantom power and away I go. I have been playing around with some of the vocal settings on the Boss, and get some very nice recordings with some of them.

As to MXL, I have no doubt that they produce some fine mics, but they developed a very bad rep on some other forums, both for sound quality and support for the numersous problems people had. Made me not want to buy one myself. As always, ymmv.

Thanks to all of you for the many very helpful postings, I did read all of them carefully and was well rewarded for taking the time. You folks are great.
Chris

ok bringing up an old thread instead of starting a new one.

I am thinking of getting a LDC tube mic  something like the AT4060 which in think sounds pretty good. I was reading on some other forums about the  Mojave Audio MA 200 (design by Dave Royer of Royer ribbon mics)

 I usually like to ab mics but I haven't found a local dealer here yet.. Has anybody used these or heard anything about them?

a link I found on the mic..
http://www.proaudioreview.com/article/272