"58s" for $20?

[Weathered]

Originally posted by agedhorse :eek: They are not easy to break if you don't do stupid things with them. In all the years I've been doing this, I can't think of even one SM-75 that I have had this happen to.

The only 57 I've seen get cooked was when a heavy handed drummer happened to have a wayward stick make contact with my snare mic. A little bit of gaff tape and it was good as (kinda) new.

[fantasticsound]

BTW - Al, although I'm very hip to certain AKG mics, the Tripower mics were a bit weird to my taste. It was their first shot into the world of high output, neodymium magnets. IIRC, they were plagued with poor sound for the money, in comparison to the EV N/DYM products and even the early Shure Betas. How long ago did you buy it? I was selling them in 1991.

[Al Poulin]

I figure about 3-5 years ago. The model is TPS D 3700S. It's got an odd shape but it looks kinda cool. I wanted to get an SM58 but the salesman recommended the AKG instead. He told me it was smoother. I should have gone with my gut feeling.... Al Poulin - Party-Time! DJ Services

[fantasticsound]

I haven't touched a Tri-power mic in about 15 years, so I can't say if they've improved.

Even beyond the issues Shure had with operator error in beta testing the first Beta58's, the original was not a good sounding mic. It was maybe a year before they updated it with an "A" designation which proved to be a far superior microphone.

I don't know if AKG followed suit.

That the D3700 is still around says something of its' success for AKG, though. I think the tendency of manufacturers making neodymium-magnet mics is to hype the midrange, intelligibility area of the frequency spectrum. Some simply sound brighter than an SM58, others sound pretty harsh until you soften the peak with EQ. At least that's been my experience.

[pktaskes]

Originally posted by Mark G. Hinge XM8500, I presume. I hope you post back on it; I'm interested in knowing your results. Thanks

Indeed!

We used them as our "happy mics"... the ones the girls from the audience use when we bring them up to sing with us...very decent sound (and feel too). Pretty sick for $20.

One other selling point - feedback was nonexistent. Some goofball will usually always will stick a mic too close to a monitor and eeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE!!! but not with these. Probably suffers tonally becasue of this but you know.

So far, so good.

[Mogwix]

For my band we use the Shure PG58 mic for our lead vocal, we've never ever had a feedback issue with it... except in a club where the sound guy is apparently retarded, because the FOH speakers were set partially behind the stage... geez. That and they had no mics, we were lucky we came prepared with our mics on hand (not all of them though, no drum mics ).

I've used the XM8500 and I was impressed with it's quality, no feedback issues (maybe I'm just kickass with speaker placement), but I can't speak for it's durability. Fairly clear but I'm fond of the 4khz range so I'm always giving that a slight boost, sometimes a huge kick in the ass to make the vocals audible in the mix.

Our PG58 has taken a beating, the other bands we play with generally use our PA (we're the only local band with a decent PA apparently) when we play shows so our mics are used a lot. We didn't actually pay for our current system, came to us on a grant from a local organization promoting the arts and whatnot, so I don't really care too much about the PA, but the mics are ours damnit we had to buy those ourselves.

Thankfully the other bands are cool guys and are fairly nice to our gear... maybe it's because I stand there glaring at them throughout the whole show...

[RoboPimp]

Maybe not an SM75, I've never used one of those.


But an SM57 can fall a few feet or be whacked by a misplaced drumstick and be completely ruined. Maybe someone as unstupid as you has a way to prevent those types of things from happening like anti-gravity mic stands or drumstick-avoidance systems but for us normal humans {censored} happens.

Accidents can happen, I don't think it has anything to do with a stupid thing. It seems to be more a cheap plastic grill thing.

Originally posted by agedhorse :eek: They are not easy to break if you don't do stupid things with them. In all the years I've been doing this, I can't think of even one SM-75 that I have had this happen to.

[fantasticsound]

All due respect, Robopimp, but Shure has a 6 foot drop test every mic they build must survive. They held up release of the KSM32 studio mic almost 2 years until it could survive this test.

But the SM57 is not a condenser mic. Dynamic mics, almost by definition, are more robust in design than condensers. Surviving the 6 foot drop test all day is typical for an SM57. If you've broken one dropping it even more than a few times it was an uncommon defective unit. And Shure will replace it for you..

Those of us who've toured or work/own soundcos have seen 57's go through hell and back and keep on working. So yes, you can break the end off and, as previously stated, the SM58 is far more robust for its' metal ball end, but denying they are still rugged mics is just plain silly in the face of 40 years of abuse they've taken with pretty much every sound engineer on the planet.

[ATOMICDOG1]

I had a sm57 broken a couple of weeks ago.
A drummer hit the 57 I had on his snare and popeed the plastic end cap off and damaged the diaphragm badly when the retainer ring caught on it. Its toast now. It was just an unlucky hit. That thing had been hit hundreds of times before without damage. Tough mics!

[RoboPimp]

I'm not denying anything, just sharing my experiences with them. I dropped my from about 2-3 feet once. Maybe I should see if they'll replace it.

Originally posted by fantasticsound All due respect, Robopimp , but Shure has a 6 foot drop test every mic they build must survive. They held up release of the KSM32 studio mic almost 2 years until it could survive this test. But the SM57 is not a condenser mic. Dynamic mics, almost by definition, are more robust in design than condensers. Surviving the 6 foot drop test all day is typical for an SM57. If you've broken one dropping it even more than a few times it was an uncommon defective unit. And Shure will replace it for you.. Those of us who've toured or work/own soundcos have seen 57's go through hell and back and keep on working. So yes, you can break the end off and, as previously stated, the SM58 is far more robust for its' metal ball end, but denying they are still rugged mics is just plain silly in the face of 40 years of abuse they've taken with pretty much every sound engineer on the planet.

[Dogoth]

57s are amazingly robust (although they don't appear to be).I have run into the problem of the plastic grill piece coming loose many times to the point where it rattles audibly. The fix is a tiny (under 1/8") strip of gaff or two and no more rattle. This does change the characteristics of the mic a little but usualy not enough to worry about. I've been thinking about a dab of Hot glue to keep the grills in place. After 40 years of making 57s don't you think Shure would have fixed this minor problem with an otherwise great workhouse mic? While we're on the subject it's interesting that in my opinion (at least I think it's interesting :>) Beta 57s make a better vocal mic than an instrument mic (actualy I sort of like them for this purpose - not really smooth but if you want to knock someone in the face with intelligability with little feedback problems then this mic kills).

[ATOMICDOG1]

Originally posted by JRBLE 57s are amazingly robust (although they don't appear to be).I have run into the problem of the plastic grill piece coming loose many times to the point where it rattles audibly. The fix is a tiny (under 1/8") strip of gaff or two and no more rattle. This does change the characteristics of the mic a little but usualy not enough to worry about. I've been thinking about a dab of Hot glue to keep the grills in place. After 40 years of making 57s don't you think Shure would have fixed this minor problem with an otherwise great workhouse mic? While we're on the subject it's interesting that in my opinion (at least I think it's interesting :>) Beta 57s make a better vocal mic than an instrument mic (actualy I sort of like them for this purpose - not really smooth but if you want to knock someone in the face with intelligability with little feedback problems then this mic kills).

 

 

Yeah, I wish they would come up with a better way of putting that little grill on. That retainer ring is a bitch to put back in when the end gets popped off.

 

+1 on the Beta 57 on vocals, especially higher male vocals.

[fantasticsound]

Originally posted by RoboPimp I'm not denying anything, just sharing my experiences with them. I dropped my from about 2-3 feet once. Maybe I should see if they'll replace it.

You should absolutely contact them for replacement. The worst they can do is say no.