...but I don't have all that much to spend
You guys are amazingly knowledgeable at this kind of stuff, as I'm sure I will be soon as well
I was taking a look at these, but a good bunch have something against CS. I'm also thinking of maybe something from Chris but I'm not all to sure what to pick, to be truthful.
It's gotta be small mainly. I'm still getting the hang of stealthing (still trying to figure out how you get away with open taping, if someone can shed some light on that ) ...but yea, small, for stealthing
Gimme some suggestions guys!
I've owned the both the Core Sound mics in the above ebay ad and the AT-853 based mics that are sold through Sound Professionals (SP-CMC4). I currently own the 853s and they've been part of my arsenal for the past 5 years and they're going to stay because I just plain like them. While the core sounds are nice and they do the job, I think that the AT-853 mics are are far nicer sounding and worth the extra money. The bass from the 853s is so much more round and full and realistic sounding. The overall sound is much more pleasing to the ear. In fact, I believe that for around $200, the 853s just represent a wonderful value that pound-for-pound or dollar-for-dollar is hard to beat. To me, the CSBs are great stealth mics and you can't understate the role Core Sound has played in bringing small stealthy sound to the masses, but the CSBs are too 'toy' sounding for my taste. Tinny, cold and bass just doesn't come through.
The pricipal negative about the 853s is their propensity to overload at relatively lower sound pressure levels than comparable mics. This is the subject of many discussions on this board and can be referenced by doing a search on TS.com...there are fixes available through mods to the mic, or through upgrading your initial purchase investment to Sound Pros.
The bottom line though is that for most club shows, I have no problem pulling nice sounding shows (with no overloading) with the cheap 9V battery box that Sound Professionals sells (make sure to get it with bass roll off though) as the companion product. The situations that pose a problem are the ear-bleed shows or a normal show when you stand too close to the stacks.
Having said this, I cannot address the Church products because I have not tried them. I only can speak about the two products that I have tried and IMHO, I'd hands down spend $200 on the 853s before I'd spend $80 on the CSB.
BTW, either of these mics are imminently stealthable. The CSBs are virtually invisible and even when detected, it's hard to believe that they are microphones. The 853s are quite obviously mics when you look at them, but they are very stealth since they are only about 3/8 inch in diameter. Incidently, while there's no data, I'm pretty sure in saying that the 853s are amongst the most popular stealth mics on this board, even amongst the experienced tapers, so that's saying something.