Hey Gaff-

This one might be best in the Acoustic Music Forum - if you get the chance, feel free to drag it on over.

Matta -
There are tons of choices for microphones that will give you the detail of the earthworks without actually being the earthworks. My new personal favorites are Gefell M296. They will pick up a bit of room though, but I find it to be less problematic than both the Schoeps omnis or the Earthworks stuff. (Much more like the M50).

If you wanna go cardioid, the two other Gefells you mentioned are top-flight and you can't go wrong with them.

Otherwise, I do like the Audix SCX-1 and the SCX-25a's as being great cardioids at a great price.

Of course, there's always fig-8 mics too; Royers, AEAs, etc.

J.

Nice Ebay-esque title. :lol:

Earthworks makes cardioid mics as well.

Thanks for the reply about the Gefell Omnis, I never thought about them (don't know why?). I think the Schoeps are just a bit high for my price range. Maybe I'll get the Avensons and the Gefells and compare what I get for the extra $2k. I'd like to hear some experiences from other users... I've never heard anything negative about the Avensons and I'm totally curious.

I was also thinking of the Gefell cardoids also because they would work better for voice...

Reggie --
RE: Title

Yeah, I knew it looked funny but I couldn't figure out why.. thanks for pointing that out. Should have put:

"BEHRINGER, not earthworks, audix, Neumann, joesphson"

That would have been more eBay of me.

--

Thanks,
Schmüddde

how about dpa omni's??

http://www.dpamicrophones.dk/

Second the DPA'a, i have a single gefell 930 and it sounds aresome-so i am assuming a stereo setup would work as well.
You can also consider Schoeps or gefell 300's

If the Sto-2s are what your budget can cover then I don't think you will be dissappointed. You can do better with 3 or 4 times the budget and the DPAs would definitely be better at about 7 times as much.

I have Avensons and feel that they are keepers.

If I could afford them I would get DPAs, Schoeps, high end Josephsons [not C42]. Currently, however, I cannot justify the expense of 'diminishing returns'.

The main criticism of the STO2s that I have heard is of their self noise and not of the quality of recorded sound. They might not be the best choice on extremely quiet sound sources though I personally have not encountered these problems.

You only find these mics at reputable and high quality dealers.

You did not mention budget. If you need to have flexibility in a high-priced pair then Schoeps CMC-621 are you ticket-- plenty of other capsules to try.

If not then the DPA wide cardioid is simply fabulous.

Rich