In addition to the ones you mentioned, the MBHO 608 triple polar pattern large diaphram condenser is excellent. Don't dismiss it just because you maybe haven't heard of it, they OEM their capsules to two of the largest and well known mic companies on the planet. The mic is very clear with a nice top. It is in the C12 lineage more than anything with a Neumann curve. Good Luck!

Don't know 'bout the Lawson or the Blues. Give the Soundelux U99 a listen for vox in general in the Soundelux line under $2k street. If you can look higher, check out the U95s before they all go away. The 95s is darker (flatter) than the U99.

I think the 4060 does pretty well on male vox. I have one singer who won't use anything else. And for him, it just fits perfectly.

Ultimately, you're going to have to listen to a lot of mics to find what you really need. Don't rush. At that price range, dealers ought to be very cooperative with you.

-Dennis

I would suggest you start reading mic reviews. For way under 2K you can get some pretty amazing mics right now. If you simply want to buy a "name" mic then spend the bucks. Rode, Shure, AT and others make some great mics at much more reasonable prices. Depending on what you are recording, you may not need to spend all that money on a mic and can also get a good pre.

I currently have a Avalon 737 and 2 Neve 1272 preamps so I feel I'm OK there. My current mics are ADK A51TC tube mic (my current favorite), a Neumann TLM103 (second favorite), and a Studio Projects C1 (it's OK). I've owned a Shure KSM32, Rode NTK (wasn't impressed), and some CAD mics. I've had a lot of the mid priced mics and feel of that lot I have MY favorits. I wanted to go up to the next level to see if it would make much of a difference.

Originally posted by coldsnow:
I currently have a Avalon 737 and 2 Neve 1272 preamps so I feel I'm OK there. My current mics are ADK A51TC tube mic (my current favorite), a Neumann TLM103 (second favorite), and a Studio Projects C1 (it's OK). I've owned a Shure KSM32, Rode NTK (wasn't impressed), and some CAD mics. .

I just did a low price mic shoot out, NTK, NT1000, C1, Area51 TC, TLM103. The vocalist was a male rock singer, kinda Joe Cockerish. I thought that the NTK and NT1000 just didn't make his voice sound like it did in the room. The TLM 103 was kinda weird too, not very natural. The Area 51 was quite nasaly, although the same mic sounded great on a female vocalist, its a nice, mic, just not on him. The Studio Projects C1 sounded absolutely incredible on this guy. It was deep and smooth, yet kept the grit that he had. I think it worked because its presence peak is higher then the "nasal" ranges. Just sounded good. I threw up my U47 tube mic, and that kinda took the cake, but its not fair to compare a C1 and U47. I find it weird that you called the C1 ok, have you compared two C1s next to each other? Possibly yours is defective?

I'd recommend getting a Blue Mouse ($1299) for the male vocals and a Blue Baby Bottle ($499) for female vocals. Tha way you'd get two world class mic for under $2000 combined.

I miss typed Kiwi for Mouse in an earlier message. It has been corrected.

Originally posted by atticus:
I'd recommend getting a Blue Kiwi ($1299).

I think you are thinking of the BLUE Mouse? The Kiwi streets @ $2000. BTW, the MBHO 608 sounds much sweeter to my ears than the Mouse (for most applications) for the same $$. YMMV

The A51 I'm using is their tube mic. The c1 is articulate but no midrange. I'm not near a store to listen to another one. So far noone who has tried the C1 compared to the A51TC has felt it comes close (in my studio).

Originally posted by coldsnow:
The A51 I'm using is their tube mic. The c1 is articulate but no midrange. I'm not near a store to listen to another one. So far noone who has tried the C1 compared to the A51TC has felt it comes close (in my studio).

The C1 I have doesn't have an overbearing midrange but it does have enough to cut and has a fat low end and a sheeny high end. The 51 TC tube mic we tried didn't have a warm low end and brought out nasaly midrange in the male vocalist. I'll put it up again and take another listen.