Topic: Church Audio CA-14 cardioids vs. Core Sound Cardioids (bb) - with sample

[Church-Audio]

I do not want to start a Church Audio vs. Core Sound discussion, but there seems to be a lot of negative feelings towards Core Sound and positive feelings towards Church Audio on this site. Are people really that dissatisfied with the Core Sound Mics, or is it Len's service attitude? Because I think his cardioid mics are pretty good :-)

Yes , that's the way I feel about Core Sound mic's too.
I think it has to with the fact that Chris answers every question here frequently. While Len hardly looks around here ( no offense ). So people get a better impression of his mic's. It is really cool Chris answers questions. I don't mean that in a bad way. But he's very good at marketing his mic's here.

Core Sound makes excellent mic's. Even Chris should and probably would acknowledge that. The Core Sound Stealthy Cardioid is an excellent mic. Now I have made my point here more than enough it is my favourite mic ever. I don't ever want to change using another mic.
There's nothing I don't like it.

About Len's customer service. I have never had any bad experience with him. Sometimes it takes him a little longer to reply. But he goes out of his way helping you with your question or problem. He once gave me a very fair deal when I had to replace a pair after using it for a long time.

The reason I sell a lot of mics is not "marketing" ( I dont even have a functioning web site ) My mics are popular simply because they are not overpriced and they sound good. I am not going to get into who's mic sound better simply because its a matter of taste and personal opinion. I will however say that in most cases I will fix or replace a mic with out any hassle what so ever, that's why people come to Church-Audio. Good customer service is not "marketing" its common sense and its the best selling tool I have. Do I have customers that are not happy with me sure but I do my best to fix the problem they may have and I always go the extra mile to keep my customers happy. They are the reason I do this. If I actually marketed my products I would never be able to handle the flow of customers. We are going to be moving soon to Hamilton a much bigger city and I will at some point in time be able to hire a second hand when that happens I will actually start to "market" my products.

Chris
 

[ninjadave]

just to throw my 2 cents in here.

i have just had the chance to use my new CA-14s with my UGLY Preamp at Fleetwood Mac (Pgh) and i can say, pound for pound, with out a doubt that these mics are better than the AT-U853's. i've run them and the smaller twin AT933's in the past and this recording is so clean and clear, its unbelievable. i was in a good spot but not the best and it really pulled the sound in like i was sitting under the stack. the sample i have is too big to post right now, i'll try and cut a small one and put in here, but i'll be putting this show to DIME shortly. i can't speak about the CS mics but for the money, you can't go wrong here with CCs stuff.

[acidjack]

FWIW, I am not familiar with the setup of your computer speakers, but I am not sure that test is reflective of either mic's characteristics in the real world. 

I too own a set of CSBs and used them extensively for a long time.  Purchased the CSCs back in 99 and ran them for awhile.  I have nothing but good things to say about the build of both the CSB and CSC mics - extremely solid, easy to use - and I had a great experience with Core overall and may well get the HEB's eventually. 

However, I ended up going back to the CSBs and using the battery box after many recordings with the CSC, in a variety of spaces (indoor, outdoor, close to the PA, far away) did not give the results I wanted.  I didn't like the bass response and found the sound lacked a sort of roundness that I like in a recording.  To some degree, I think this is an issue with all of the small cardiod mics, even the most expensive.

I wouldn't tell you to get rid of your CSCs if you're happy with them, but I would definitely try a real-world test of the CA-14's before dismissing them also. I have not used them myself but have heard samples that were very strong.

For what it's worth, I myself run the Sound Professionals CMC-8's now with omni caps for more up-close situations and the cardiods for everything else.  I have been very pleased with the results of both caps and recently upgraded the cards to the AT853.  FWIW, I chose SP over the Church product because I wanted the versatility of switchable caps.  Since you already have a battery box, if you're trying out mics, you could give the SP-CMC-4U a shot as well and see what you think, as that model uses the AT853 caps. 

But who knows - if the CSCs are working for you, stick with it.  I find with any of these the user of the mics can have a big impact on the mic's performance.

[ninjadave]

i never did post the sample but i did get my show up on DIME. there are samples there.

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=240479&page=0#startcomments