I don't know anyone who has run 170's, or if they did, they didn't keep running them. I don't generally recommend that new tapers jump into an unknown mic, because if it doesn't work it's especially frustrating to someone who is just starting out.
Most condenser mics are designed for studio use, meaning drums or guitar etc fairly close to the instrument, and maybe with a frequency response tailored to that situation. Very few mics are designed for ambient recording at a distance, and I think over time the horde of tapers have tried most of figured out which ones are good for that purpose, and which ones are not. I'll use Shure SM81's as an example... possibly the most common mic for overhead drums on stage, but I don't know anyone who uses them regularly for ambient taping, except perhaps a house sound guy who just happens to have them and nothing else.
My suggestion is to look for something that has hundreds of tapes on archive.org, and listen to them, and pick one you like. Some decent low cost mics that you might find in the yard sale for something like $200 a pair are:
- Studio Projects C4's (which use phantom power)
- Nakamichi CM300's (which use special batteries)
- AT853's, ones with phantom adapters.
- Busman Audio BSC1's
.... I'm sure there are lots more, someone throw out other ideas. All the gear I have, and I have a lot of it, has been purchased used, mostly from the yard sale.
In general taper's mics fall into 2 categories:
- mics with have XLR connectors, and frequently phantom power, and low impedence. I'll call these "big mics" Example: the 170's
- mics which run on "plug in power" of something like 3-12v, frequently plugging into a 1/8" miniplug jack. Example: CA-14's
My suggestion is to pick one or the other, and don't try to mix and match. I'm not saying it can't be done, but in my experience, a newbie who tries to mix and match big preamps with small mics, or big mics with little preamps frequently ends up very frustrated. You have a preamp and recorder with XLRs, stick with mics with XLR's.
Topic: AKG Perception 170's. Yay or Nay? (Read 8364 times)