jpsc - sorry if i am sounding elitist or something, and my comments only come from my own personal experience. i ran neumann km184s for several years and while they are fine mics, and did some things in the studio very well, i never liked them as a main stereo pair. it wasnt until i finally invested in some schoeps that i realized that certain mics are designed for diffuse field work and that in general, most SD mics are designed for near field applications, resulting in rahter thin bright results when used for diffuse applications. at the same time, while the schoeps are phenomenal as a main pair, they are rather boomy when used in the near field. since my experience has shown that the 480s, and the at4051s are designed somewhere in the middle, they function pretty well in both near field and diffuse situations. i can tell from the curve on the SP mics that they are crafted more toward near field applications, and that for diffuse field work, they may not be the best choice - that doenst mean that they wont deliver nice results when used properly and matched with the appropriate preamp. one of the nice things about most of the taper crowd is that they generally invest in nice preamps, unlie so many project studio owners who try to get away with with truly crummy preamps. all of that said, i do think that alan hyatt really tries hard to deliver good affordable products as well as responsive customer service - SP is a good solid company. take care.