Topic: Audio Technica AT873R experiences/opinions?

[Will_S]

Anyone have experience with the AT873R mic?  It uses the same capsules as the AT853, coming standard with a hypercardiod capsule, in a full-size mic body that takes phantom power and includes an internal shock mount.  I've read some stuff on home recording/video boards comparing it favorably with the Oktava MC012 hyper.  Wonder if it's worth considering as part of a budget open-taping rig, especially for someone who already has the cardiod caps on a battery-box powered version from Sound Professionals.

[poorlyconditioned]

Anyone have experience with the AT873R mic?  It uses the same capsules as the AT853, coming standard with a hypercardiod capsule, in a full-size mic body that takes phantom power and includes an internal shock mount.  I've read some stuff on home recording/video boards comparing it favorably with the Oktava MC012 hyper.  Wonder if it's worth considering as part of a budget open-taping rig, especially for someone who already has the cardiod caps on a battery-box powered version from Sound Professionals.

Do you have a good source for these?  My advice would be to get another kind of mic, something that complements the AT853.  (He says, as he looks at about a dozen AT853 variants.  I think the AT873R is the only kind I *don't* have!)

  Richard

[Will_S]

Anyone have experience with the AT873R mic?  It uses the same capsules as the AT853, coming standard with a hypercardiod capsule, in a full-size mic body that takes phantom power and includes an internal shock mount.  I've read some stuff on home recording/video boards comparing it favorably with the Oktava MC012 hyper.  Wonder if it's worth considering as part of a budget open-taping rig, especially for someone who already has the cardiod caps on a battery-box powered version from Sound Professionals.

Do you have a good source for these?  My advice would be to get another kind of mic, something that complements the AT853.  (He says, as he looks at about a dozen AT853 variants.  I think the AT873R is the only kind I *don't* have!)

  Richard

No particularly good source, no.  I recently picked up a Firebox in the yard sale to start building an open rig, and am looking at what I can get for <500 or so.  The thing is, I really like my AT853 (Sound Pro battery box version) sound and already have the hyper and card caps for it, so I figured I could sell the hypers off the AT873Rs and make out pretty well.  I like having the AT853s for stealth, and think it's easier stealthing them with just the battery box as opposed to 3-wire or phantom adapter, especially since the shows I see aren't loud enough to give me SPL problems and are quiet enough that I'd need to add in a preamp if I modded the AT853s.  I was curious to see what proper powering and a good preamp could do for the AT853 caps, plus having real mic bodies would help with mounting and configuring in open situations.

But, I just found a guy on my local Craigslist selling a pair of Russian made Oktava MC012 cards for $175.  Hmmm...  I'd definitely want to pick up some hyper caps as well but they still wouldn't cost me THAT much more than the AT873Rs, especially if I had a hard time unloading the second pair of hyper caps.

I'm also thinking about an LSD2 at the way upper end of my price range, but to be honest I'm generally not thrilled with the sound of LD mics.  But I've heard a few M/S tapes with the LSD2 I really like, and I figure M/S would be fun to play with.