I went from an Audio Technica AT822 stereo mic to a pair of Shure sm81's and definitely noticed an improvement. Low end kind of reminded me of my friends Nak cm300's he was running at the time. I ran them for a few years then moved on to Neumann km140's - again, I noticed an improvement with much sweeter mids and highs. I think I paid $400 for a used pair with ws81 windscreens.