Mic Recomendation

altsouza

Well-Known Member
Dec 9, 2014
5
0
106
Brazil
Hello Guys,

I am looking for a Mic to replace my Cheap Behringer Mic.
The Eathworks m23 is expensive.
I found the Audix TM1 Mic at amazon for US$300, but it is still expensive for my budget.

Can you recomend a good Mic for arround $200?

I use a Motu Ultralite Mk3 soundcard. Is it worth to upgrade the Mic, and not upgrade de Motu ????

Thanks

Antonio
 

Nyal Mellor

Industry Expert
Jul 14, 2010
590
4
330
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Hello Guys,

I am looking for a Mic to replace my Cheap Behringer Mic.
The Eathworks m23 is expensive.
I found the Audix TM1 Mic at amazon for US$300, but it is still expensive for my budget.

Can you recomend a good Mic for arround $200?

I use a Motu Ultralite Mk3 soundcard. Is it worth to upgrade the Mic, and not upgrade de Motu ????

Thanks

Antonio

Beyerdynamic MM1. It is not an M23 but very decent.
 

altsouza

Well-Known Member
Dec 9, 2014
5
0
106
Brazil
Thank you Guys.

Don, I am going to use for Room Correction in my Home. I use Audiolense to create the filters and JRiver for playback.
For now I use a Behringer ECM Mic with Motu Ultralite Mk3 Soundcard (yes, it has phantom power), but I want to improov the measurements.

I have researched and found these options:
Beyer MM1 - $200 (recomended by Nyal Mellor)
Isemcon 13d082 - $200 (Recomended by Bernt from Audiolense)
Linearx M31 - $175 (Recomended by Bernt from Audiolense)

I also want to know if will be any advantage to replace the Mic.

Thanks

Antonio
 

DonH50

Member Sponsor & WBF Technical Expert
Jun 22, 2010
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You could pick up one of the calibrated Dayton mics that REW and similar programs use. The mic alone is around $50, and you can get a calibrated version for around $100. A cheap mic with a cal file might be a significant upgrade in accuracy if your Behringer is not cal'd (you did not say what you have now, I assume the ECM8000?).

I use an Earthworks M30 but it is out of your price range. Frankly, if I was starting today, I'd get one of the calibrated USB mics and call it a day. Most mics fall off on the low end so a cal file is needed anyway.

The MOTU stuff I have used in the past was good stuff, very good "mid-grade" pro units. I did not look up the MOTU interface but suspect it is way flatter than the mic so doubt changing it would matter. The only exception is that some computer audio interfaces include subsonic filters that could mess up subwoofer readings. Just check the frequency response spec of your MOTU interface.
 

DonH50

Member Sponsor & WBF Technical Expert
Jun 22, 2010
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Aside: Nyal, did you find the Beyerdynamic a significant step up from the Behringer ECM8000? Other than a lower noise floor and a bit flatter from say 3k - 10k I did not find it worth 4x the price of the Behringer back when I was shopping around. Of course, with an M30 at home, neither of them appealed all that much to me at the time, and I had not stumbled on to REW and the inexpensive calibrated mics so readily available now.
 

altsouza

Well-Known Member
Dec 9, 2014
5
0
106
Brazil
Hi Don,

After using the Behringer Mic for 2 years, I bought the Dayton version with the Cal file. I sent the file to Bernt (from audiolense) and he told me that the calibration used was not of high quality, and that would be better not use it.
I supose the EMM-13D082 from Isemcon comes with Cal file. Also the beyer can send you the file.
Thanks
Antonio
 

dallasjustice

Member Sponsor
Apr 12, 2011
2,067
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Dallas, Texas
A better mic will give you much better filters, IME. Eearthworks m23 is a great one. I would caution against any USB mic for your application.
 

DonH50

Member Sponsor & WBF Technical Expert
Jun 22, 2010
3,947
306
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Monument, CO
There is an REW thread over on AVS that talks about the different mics and their cals. IIRC the miniDSP version was more generic while another company's calibration was individual to each mic. That may have changed. As for the companies, I may have the names wrong, sorry.

The room correction can only be as good as the measurement, so if the cals are off you are only going to correct as good as the calibration. I assume that is what is meant by "better filters"? The mic cannot change the filters that are in the DSP, but if the mic has a +3 dB peak the filters won't help tame it since they have no way of knowing the cause. I think we're saying the same thing...

I am disappointed but very glad to know the cals are not good. That is vexing; I was hoping to go that route and scrap some of my test gear before having to update SW again. OTOH it makes some sense that a $200 mic and free SW isn't quite as good as my Earthworks mic (M30) and more professional level SW. Plus a mic preamp -- I use a cheap one for this since all I really care about is flat response and that's pretty easy, except a lot of cheap preamps roll off the low end by default (intentionally and with good reason) so you have to check the specs. I probably have $2500 in my test system, still an order of magnitude less than something like an AP unit (though my mic will hold its own against anything out there IMO).

Thanks - Don
 

mojave

Well-Known Member
Oct 29, 2010
251
0
321
Elkhorn, NE
If using Audiolense you don't want a USB mic since Audiolense requires the same ASIO driver to be used for output/input for the best filter creation. I have an iSEMcon EMM-7101-CHTB but a EMM-7101-CSTB would work as well and is $206 USD. You also need the SMB to XLR cable (CX-BFXM-2m) which cost about $ 35.00. I had mine calibrated down to 5Hz by iSEMcon. Is is -.25 dB at 5 Hz.

Yesterday I received an Earthworks M30BX which has its own built-in battery preamp. I haven't tried it out yet with Audiolense.
 

dallasjustice

Member Sponsor
Apr 12, 2011
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What if the the two ASIO devices were in sync with wordclock generated from one device to the other ASIO device? I realize none of the usb mics have WC in/out. But I may buy a new MCH DAC that has a WC input and I was wondering whether I could slave it to the word clock generated by the Lynx Hilo.


If using Audiolense you don't want a USB mic since Audiolense requires the same ASIO driver to be used for output/input for the best filter creation. I have an iSEMcon EMM-7101-CHTB but a EMM-7101-CSTB would work as well and is $206 USD. You also need the SMB to XLR cable (CX-BFXM-2m) which cost about $ 35.00. I had mine calibrated down to 5Hz by iSEMcon. Is is -.25 dB at 5 Hz.

Yesterday I received an Earthworks M30BX which has its own built-in battery preamp. I haven't tried it out yet with Audiolense.
 
Last edited:

Nyal Mellor

Industry Expert
Jul 14, 2010
590
4
330
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Aside: Nyal, did you find the Beyerdynamic a significant step up from the Behringer ECM8000? Other than a lower noise floor and a bit flatter from say 3k - 10k I did not find it worth 4x the price of the Behringer back when I was shopping around. Of course, with an M30 at home, neither of them appealed all that much to me at the time, and I had not stumbled on to REW and the inexpensive calibrated mics so readily available now.

The calibration process introduces its own set of errors. The MM1 is a reliable, trustworthy mic that can be used with no cal file and is still reasonably accurate (plus / minus a few dB). I would not use any mic that has not been individually tested as part of an end of line QA process with a response curve available for the end user to validate that the mic is good. The Dayton EMM-6 would be preferable over the Behringer for that reason. I use M23 for sensitive tasks though that is basically flat out of the box. FWIW I've found the calibration files created by Dirac Live, DEQX, etc to sound a little better with a top notch mic.
 

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