greetings earthlings today i am back with a review of a brand new budget handheld vocal dynamic
microphone that microphone being the sterling p20 and if you are interested in this mic it
will cost you around 60 dollars like always i'll throw some links in the description down below
in the sake of full disclosure i do need to let you know that sterling audio did
send me this microphone free of charge for the sake of making this review and for this
review i do have the microphone connected directly to the focusrite 18i20 second gen
my gain is set at around four o'clock recording 24 bit 48 kilohertz and i will
not do any kind of post processing but i may have to boost it a little bit in post so check
the doobly-doo to see what i didily did and now let's talk about what comes in the box
what a surprise you are going to get the microphone you'll also get the microphone mount
but no 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter also it comes with this really nice padded storage
case and a little bit of documentation then as far as the build quality i really don't have
any complaints about this thing it has an all metal body which feels very robust the metal
mesh grille has absolutely zero give to it as we move around the microphone there are no buttons no
on or off switches nothing on the rear you will find the xlr port and if it matters to you this
microphone is made in china then as far as the specs this microphone has a cardioid polar pattern
a frequency response of 50 hertz to 16 kilohertz a sensitivity of around negative 53 db and an
impedance of 400 ohms now i am spinning around the p20 so you can hear the off axis rejection and
coloration we'll continue around the microphone to 180 degrees here's the rear of the mic
continuing around to the second 90 degree angle there we are and then rotating and ending at the
front of the microphone now let's test the plosive rejection of this thing please bring pizza pronto
please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza the hut pronto i wait i am pizza the hut i'm already
here now i'm right on top of the microphone to demonstrate the proximity effect on this thing
now i'm about three inches off with the mic pointed at the corner of my mouth
and here's how it's sounding about one foot away from the microphone two feet away from
the microphone and about four feet away from the microphone now i'm typing on a keyboard
with gatoron blue switches to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard it picks up
and for all the gaming girls and boys out there i'm typing on the sad w and spacebar keys
here is how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room
all right you should be able to see the microphone right there in frame
and here is how the mic sounds in a completely untreated room
now i want to see how well the microphone and the provided mount
reject shocks so i will go ahead and tap on my desk to see how much of that i can reject
and then i will tap on the boom arm
now because this is a handheld microphone i'll pass it back and forth between my hands
so we can see how much of that noise it can reject
and this is pretty important because this is a handheld microphone
i'm going to tap on the body to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
and although i typically don't recommend it i will go ahead and demonstrate how this microphone
sounds if you so choose to cup the entire grille you can hear it does change the tone
of the microphone quite a bit but it doesn't make it or yield it completely unusable here is what it
sounds like without being cupped and again here is what it sounds like with my hand encapsulating the
entirety of the sides of the diaphragm okay that was why did i say that's so weird and now
like always we're going to do a quick spoken word comparison between the microphone that
we're reviewing and a bunch of other mics on the market so we can see how it stacks up against the
competition and although i said i was going to limit how many i do i just i can't help myself
we have a lot to get through today we'll start on the sterling p20 i am three inches off my gain is
at four o'clock and here's how it sounds first up we are on the behringer xm 8500 this is a
20 handheld dynamic microphone three inches off again at four o'clock and here's how it sounds
let's jump back to the sterling and do a bunch more comparisons again we're on the sterling p20
nothing has changed and here's how it sounds let's jump to the next mic next we are on the shure sm48
this is a 40 handheld dynamic microphone i am three inches off my gain is still at four o'clock
check the lower third to see how much i boost each of these in post and let's do more of these again
i am back on the p20 so you can hear how this sounds in between every mic that we compare it
against let's jump to the next one now we are on the shure pga 58 another cardioid handheld dynamic
microphone this costs around 54. three inches off gain at four o'clock and is how it sounds let's
do more alright we are on the p20 again this is how it sounds nothing has changed let's do
more comparisons now we are on the luit mtp250dm this costs around eighty dollars another cardioid
dynamic microphone and here's how it sounds compared to the sterling let's jump back to the
sterling this is the fifth comparison that we're doing but first this is the sterling p20 let's
jump to the next one now we are on the sennheiser e835 a very popular handheld dynamic microphone
100 3 inches off gain at four o'clock and here's how it sounds let's jump back to the
sterling because we got a bunch more to do back on the sterling p20 again nothing has changed
same distance same gain setting let's jump to another mic now we are on the electro voice nd 76
three inches off gain at four o'clock this also costs one hundred dollars and here's how it sounds
let's jump back to the sterling i'm sure you're surprised to hear it but we are back on the
sterling p20 again here is how it sounds let's jump to the seventh microphone now we're really
cooking with fire i am on the essie electronics sev7 super cardioid handheld dynamic microphone
100 3 inches off gained at four o'clock and here's how this sounds versus and compared
to the sterling p20 next microphone back on the p20 it's a good thing i don't live in the sewers
because then turtles would eat me get it now we are on the buyer dynamic v50d three inches off
gain at four o'clock this costs around one hundred dollars and here's how this sounds compared to the
sterling which is sixty dollars let's jump back to the sterling and do three more comparisons
back on the p20 again i have said the same thing over and over again so i'm not going
to say it again next microphone you knew that we weren't going to wrap up this video
without this microphone this is the shure sm58 i am three inches off my gain is at
four o'clock this costs one hundred dollars and it is the stage microphone the classic how does
this compare to the sterling p20 let's jump back to the sterling p20 and do two more comparisons
okay i can't help myself we're back on the p20 nothing has changed same distance same gain
setting let's jump to another microphone now we are on the akg d5 this runs for about 105 dollars
i am still three inches off my gain is still at four o'clock and here is what akg's offering
sounds like in this price point let's jump back to the sterling and do the final comparison and
i believe we have one more microphone to go this is the p20 though and let's jump to that final
mic and lastly i am on the neumann u87ai this is a multi-pattern large diaphragm condenser microphone
cardioid mode no filters no pads engaged gain at 11 o'clock and phantom power is turned on
and this runs around thirty six hundred dollars okay here's how it sounds let's let's jump to the
music test we don't have any more comparisons to do it's music test time so let's do it
i forgot to dress up for halloween this year
cause i refuse to believe that thanksgiving and christmas are so near
now i'm sure you're wondering will bandra if you forgot to dress up why do you look like a slice
of pepperoni pizza well simply put this is what i typically wear this this is my casual wear i
i'm normally dressed up for my videos so so let's go to the conclusion all right at the entry level
handheld dynamic market sterling is going up against some really steep competition here
but first up in terms of pros this microphone does have a relatively hot output for a dynamic
microphone the off axis rejection on this thing and the background noise rejection as well
was pretty impressive the handling noise was respectable not the best i've heard but pretty
respectable and it is an affordable microphone and then as far as cons the plosive rejection on this
thing leaves a bit to be desired and the top end on this thing is incredibly bright and it sounds
quite unsmooth then as far as my overall thoughts and opinions of this microphone
on the electric guitar i wasn't the biggest fan of it it doesn't have the heaviest low end but you do
end up with this v-shaped sound to it it sounds as though they scooped out quite a bit of mids
and then you have this really boosted top end which i think gets to be a little bit piercing and
pretty unpleasant especially when you get to the upper register of the guitar then on
the acoustic guitar my opinion falls in line with most other dynamics and it's no big surprise there
the top end comes across too over boosted and that leads to the acoustic sounding way too artificial
so all around not something that i'm a fan of and not something i would use for an acoustic guitar
next up for singing you're getting a relatively tame low end but at the same time it has this
weight and heft to it which is really interesting sounding you also have that recessed mid section
so you're getting an ever so slight v-shape but most importantly you're getting this very boosted
top end and to my ears it comes across a bit unsmooth a bit artificial and a bit unnatural and
it's not going to be my favorite mic for vocals and last up for spoken word you have the same
story as for singing you have this heavy low end but it's also tame at the same time then
you have this recessed midsection so it's not overly nasally you can really hear that when
we compare it to other dynamics it doesn't have that same honkiness in the midsection
and then the top end is quite boosted quite artificial sounding and if that's what you're
looking for you're getting it here and to wrap up would i recommend the sterling p20 kind of if your
budget allows you to stretch to 100 i think you do have some more interesting options if you're going
for that really bright sound similar to the p20 the sennheiser e835 i think offers a more pleasing
version of that and if you want a more balanced version of a microphone the sev7 is what i would
go for at the 100 price point but if your budget is limited and capped at 60 dollars i think this
does offer something quite different sounding to its competition at that budget something different
from the xm 8500 different from the sm48 and different from the pga 58 so if you're somebody
who is looking for that extremely bright dynamic sound and your budget is limited to sixty dollars
i think this is an interesting option and i think that is going to wrap up for today but like always
i want to pass the question off to you which of the microphones that i compared in this
video was your favorite leave the u87 out of it because the u87 will always and should always win
in most cases let me know in the comments down below which was your favorite also if you found
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