Hey, that bottom-feeder stuff is MY TURF, not Fletcher's!! They're very similar sounding, almost interchangable.

The Sound Room offers matched MC012 pairs, with -10dB pads and 3 capsules per mic - a cardioid, hypercardioid, and omni.

The Marshall 603S is a wide cardioid - somewhere between a cardioid and an omni.

You can't go wrong with either of them. The 603S would be the first choice if you're on a very tight budget (around $70 each).

Hi!

I have seen many references of mics that can be had on a price that sometimes sounds pretty much mystical for me. Like $70 for 603S mics. - No offence, Harvey, but from where can one actually obtain these mics with this price? I would be very much interested... Seems like, being in Europe, ordering over the Internet is my only option...

Arne Holm

I think Abe's Music, Filiment Audio, and 8th Street Music are all on line, and they all sell them for around that price. ebay is where you'll find a lot of Abe's deals.

Thanks Harvey!

I'll check them out.

Arne

The edit part:
Checked, they are $80 at 8th street.

Hey Arne...

I'm in Europe too. Did you find those mics somewhere on a not US-site?
Buying them in Europe would save me on taxes and shipment...

Hi Roel!

So far I have managed to locate exactly zero items in Europe. Even Musicians-gear, which otherwise is pretty good, doesn't carry the MXL line now. :(

Seems like the guys at MXL haven't yet been able to find distributors in Europe.

Arne

I think they might have a problem with the name... My guess is the name Marshall was registered quite a while ago here in Europe. I tried looking for the same modelnumbers under another brand... No luck there either.

I'm in it for the oktava's actually. Any luck with those?

Roel, if you're interested in buying Oktava mics, I've heard that there are basically two places in the world you can get them with consistently good quality - Taylor Johnson's Sound Room is one of them, for folks across the pond and buying them directly from Michael Vladimirsky in Moscow.

It seems not to make sense to have the mics shipped all the way to the states and then back again to Europe - and in fact it does not. The prices are considerably lower if you buy the mics directly from Michael - he offered me a matched stereo pair with three capsules and the price was well below, than what you would get from the States. But there's a big 'if'... If anything should happen to the mics, I guess it would be a much bigger hassle to send them back to Russia for warranty repairs than it would be to send them to the states...

But if you're interested, I'll dig Michael's address for you...

Best regards,
Arne

Now you got my attention. :)

I'd love to see that address. Also, how did you arrange the payment, delivery times etc... For repairs, with a little assistence, I should be able to sevice the electronics part myself. If the mechanics are damaged, well... I'll figure it out.

Thanks!!

Looky looky what I found.
http://

Is this it?

It is and it isn't...

Roel, PM me your e-mail address and I'l forward Michael's letter with the details in it to you...

Also, yes, you could service the little tings yourself but if the capsule goes kaput then you are SOL of course. So let's hope that it doesn't happen...

What is the exact reason for buying the mc012's from the soundroom or M. Vladimirsky? I found a distributor in Belgium that DOES carry the mics... So I mailed them, it might be cheaper if I buy the mics directly from them? I don't know if they have matched pairs however...

Does M. Vladimirsky the matching himself, or does he get the matched pairs from the manufacturer? How about the soundroom?

Umm, I thought that I had already replied to that question - it's finally proven that I have Alzheimer's...

The reason to buy mics from Sound Room is the quality control Taylor Johnson makes them. AFAIK the quality control originates all the way back to Moscow and the legend is that Michael Vladimirsky tests (or at least has them tested) every mic that goes out with some kind of an orchestra to really examine the match between the mics. This could very well be an urban legend so if anyone has any information that's a bit more specific, please, fill in the blanks. But the mics that don't go pass these tests go back to the factory's official distribution channel anyhow and again are being shipped to the world. Thing is, if you have an ability to pick between 50 or so mics, odds are that you find two, taht can be called matched pair sets, but only with cardioid capsules, the Sound Room matched sets have cardioid, omni and hypercardioid capsules all matched within the set, with an error margin of something around 1 dB max, if I remember correctly. But if you order a pair over the net from somewhere, well, nobody knows what you will eventually get.

And does the average thing coming out of a factory in Russia have possible issues with quality? Yes, it does... I mean, they can build wonderful things in Russia and they do. Everything is handmade. It's just the hands that make them... Sometimes they are not sober, and other times they use a hammer to assemble things. A BFH was the most common tool used in the auto industry in the Soviet Union and no wonder they always broke. I repeat, I've lived 20 years in the system. Are they really that bad? No, they are worse.

These problems are precisely, what both Michael at Moscow and Taylor at Sound Room are trying to deal with - and with considerable success, as I've heard.

I checked the price at a local dealer... About the double of what Michael asks for the matched pair... FOR ONE MIC!! Jee. Ordering a matched pair from the soundroom is cheaper than buying one mic over here!

So, the matched pairs from the soundroom have the capsules matched too? And Michaels mics, they got only matched cardioid capsules? Hmmm... Am I getting this right? I'm a little bit confused lately... Rather heavy weekend. Aouch.

Slowly recovering from the weekend. Contacted both the soundroom and michael. They both send out the matched pairs with all capsules matched. I'll get them from michael, I guess... First check my cashflow. hehe :p