is stealth a necessity? if not, what about some AKG 393's
those are pretty decent hypers for the bang for your buck. Brian Costigan used to run the 393>mp2>d-7/8 on Phish tour back in the day, and those tapes stood right up there with all the Schoeps/Neumann tapes IMO. and they dont lack bass either, theyre a nice, full sounding hyper IMO.
And if stealthing is a necessity, what about getting the extensions for the 390 series?
or if you are set on mini AT's, why not get BOTH the cards and hypers? they cant be that expensive a pair......
I personally run hypers 99% of the time but I record openly ALL of the time and can raise my stand prewtty high to avoid annoying chatter, and when I do that, even at 12ft in the air, you hear next to NO chatter, just a nice, focused recording, not lacking in bass either, but I run AKG 483 hypers and MBHO ka500hn hypers> Sound Devices 722. those combos cant be ebaten IMO. if you can afford a grand ($1,000) for mics, get the AKG 460/480 with the ck63 hypoers caps. Actually, there are a pair of AKG 463's(460 bodies with ck63 capsules) for only 700 for the pair/used. thats a GREAT deal IMO. but its apair of mics that would be VERY hard to stealth. the 460/480's are some of the bigger mics out there.
my 2 cents, id either buy cards AND hypers in the mini AT's and see which one you prefer for stealthinhg, and sell off the other pair. OR get a pair of 393's with the active/extension cables
the 393's are the ONLY hyper IMO worth buying unless you are spending $1,000+ on a pair of mics