I am running these mics currently and am desperately seeking to upgrade from them. I'd recommend saving money and buying something better like some sound professionals cmc4 or cmc8 mics. The squids make OK recordings, but you will not stay satisfied with them for that long. Specifically, if you are talking about recording symphonies you will probably not be all that pleased with the results. The clarity is as good as the price tag. Recordings will be very listenable, just not as crisp or full as one would like. As an entry level mic to get acquianted with stealth recording they are a good buy. From my experience these will sound best in very small venues with little crowd noise. Once again though, I'd highly recommend saving your money and buying a higher end mic kit. If you're not recording in extremely high SPL environments than the sp-cmc-4 or sp-cmc-8 are a much better bang for the buck. Only drawback IMO in comparing the sound professionals to the squids is that the omni's will make a less directional than those cardiods will. For classical music you may want a more environmental recording, but unless you have at least 500 to spend on some DPA 4061 omnis it's a trade off that is worth making. Best bet would be to listen to some recordings of some other "entry level" mic sources and see what sound you like best. But the Sound Professionals are a higher quality mic than the squids for not much more.