Hi!
So, I've been reading a lot about mics and preamps here on taperssection (btw in Norwegian taper means loser, coincidence? ;-) for about a year now. I am a long time taper that've been taping since 1988, so I've learnt a bit through the years. I've been taping with Core Sound Binaurals (with bb),but stopped using them in 97 and started using Core Sound Cardioids (with BB), since I am mostly doing stealthing with occasionally lots of noise from the audience. As a preamp I've been using Sonic Studios PA-3SX-U with the r09hr.
After reading a lot here, I decided to get a set of Church Audio CA-14 Cardioids, since people here were praising them for their great sound quality and value for money. I also got a Ca-9100 preamp, that I was planning to use with the ca-14s. Being disappointed with the results, I have made a sample sound file. I taped the same portion of a song from my computer speakers on a pretty loud volume (not very scientific, but should be good enough for this) in the same circumstances with 4 setups, the only editing is normalizing.
http://www.2shared.com/file/4592769/2ba29da/sample.htmlThis file includes the following 4 clips (with a 1 second gap between them):
1 - CA-14 cardioids > CA-9100 > line in > r09hr
2 - CSC (w/bb) > CA-9100 > line in > r09hr
3 - CSC (w/bb) > PA-3SX-U > line in > r09hr
4 - CA-14 cardioids > PA-3SX-U > line in >r09hr
AS you'll hear, there is a h*** of a difference between the clips.
Clip 1 has too much bass IMO, and the steady noise is too much.
Clip 2 is a lot better
Clip 3 is IMO the best, more clarity of sound, but not that much better than Clip 2
Clip 4 is the worst, probably due to the mics and preamp not being well suited for each other...
So, what should I make of this? I suppose you always get what you pay for, and here are the prices:
CA-14 cardioids - about USD 100
CSC (with bb) - about USD 250
CA-9100 - about USD 140
PA-3SX-U - about USD 450
which gives this price comparison between the clips (mics + preamp):
1 - USD 240
2 - USD 390
3 - USD 700
4 - USD 550
I do not want to start a Church Audio vs. Core Sound discussion, but there seems to be a lot of negative feelings towards Core Sound and positive feelings towards Church Audio on this site. Are people really that dissatisfied with the Core Sound Mics, or is it Len's service attitude? Because I think his cardioid mics are pretty good :-)
I would be interested in any advice concerning cardioids that would perform better than the Core Sound mics (that would still work for stealth), within a USD 1000 per pair spending limit...
Any comments appreciated :-) (but please keep any hatred off this post, I'm not into fighting over this)
-Colargol