i owned apair of the nt5s for a short while. i was able to get fair results out ofhtme in the studio on piano and acoustic guitar, but they were not very good as a main stereo pair at any kind of distance - they were thin and bright sounding. for teh same kind of money, i would say the akg c391s (used about $350 pr), are a much better mic. but still you are going to be wanting to upgrade again sonn with any of those mics. it makes sense to go ahead and kill yourself to get a pair of good mics that will last you a long time and hold thier value - i have really liked the akg c480s, the schoeps cmc64s, and DPAs. sennheiser mkh series are very good, as are the upper models of gefell. teh older neumann km84s are great old mics, and you will never lose any money by investing in them. i think the least expensive mics i have liked are the AT4051s and the little gefell M300s - both around $600 pr used. i find the km184s to be pretty useable in the studio for close mic applications, but they are also rather thin for diffuse field applications. correct matching of your mics with a good preamp can also make a world of difference.