So microphone reviews are kind of like microphone pornography?
Most of the ones I read are exactly that.
I fell victim to a wide variety of internet mic reviews (not to mention preamp and converter discussions) and have way more mics than I need. Like many folks today I felt the urge to "contribute" by reviewing mics and doing comparisons. And darned if I didn't hear just what I was "supposed" to hear - this one was clean and neutral, that was shrieky, the other dull and lifeless.
Then I learned about the importance of same performance, level matched comparisons. And when I started making more careful comparisons the differences grew smaller and smaller and smaller.
Here are four mics recording a solo acoustic guitar. They are a Shure KSM44, Shure KSM141, Schoeps CMC64, and CAD M179. Two LDs, two SDs, one that cost $150, one that cost over $1500.
http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/audio/20090626-F.wavhttp://www.homebrewedmusic.com/audio/20090626-G.wavhttp://www.homebrewedmusic.com/audio/20090626-H.wavhttp://www.homebrewedmusic.com/audio/20090626-I.wavBased on what I've read on the internet, the differences between these mics should be huge, instantly obvious, and profound. And I should easily be able to recognize the signature LD sound vs SD. And certainly a Schoeps CMC64 will stand out in the crowd.
Out of hundreds of comments about two people have identified the four mics correctly.
Some of the posts on my Homebrewed Music blog deal with setting up a comparison like this. Reviews that compare mics based on different performances with minimal level matching and wide time spacing ... it's funny to me how often the findings match exactly the "expected" result.
I have this idea that a poorly executed comparison is worse than none at all, because of the human tendency to attach to any information, good or bad. A bad comparison will cause us to firmly believe bad information.
What I find informative is a description of the use of a mic for a particular recording goal. Why and how an omni pair was used in this space, with this result, when to use a figure 8 pattern and why, what the included angle means to the stereo stage with different pickup patterns.
Fran