greetings earthlings today i'm back with a review of the most affordable tube
microphone that i could get my hands on that microphone being this bulky son of
a gun the mono price stage right ltm 500 large multi-pattern tube studio condenser microphone
if you are interested in this microphone it will cost you around 200
like always i'll throw some links down below links links down below and for this review i
have the microphone connected directly to the 18 i 20 second gen with my gain set at around 1 o'clock
i will not do any kind of post processing but i may have to boost it in post so check the
dooblydoo or the lower third to see what i didly did and now let's talk about what comes in the box
first everything comes in this extremely large hard shell carrying case in that case you will
of course get the microphone about a 20-foot braided 7-pin xlr cable which runs from the tube
microphone to the microphone's power supply the power supply and the power cable for said power
supply a shock mount but no 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter and a foam windscreen
then as far as the build quality of this microphone simply put it does not feel very
good at all it feels very similar to a lot of the mass-produced affordable chinese electric
condenser microphones like the nw 700 bm 800 all of that ilk it does appear to have a metal
body and a metal grill but it is extremely cheap feeling and they do have some resonance to them
which i will demonstrate a little bit later as you move around the microphone there are no switches
there is nothing there but on the bottom you will find the seven pin xlr port which you
then run from the microphone to the provided power supply also i did open up the microphone to make
sure there was in fact a tube in there and here's what that looks like if that is of interest to you
and for those who are even more nerdy here is what the circuit of this microphone looks like
i don't know what any of this means but i'm sure somebody's looking at this and
learning something then as far as the power supply you have an xlr output to run to your interface
or preamp you have the seven pin microphone input which you connect your microphone to
you have the polar pattern selection switch to switch between all of the polar patterns and on
the rear of the power supply you have the port to connect the power cable and the power switch
and lastly if you are interested all of this stuff is made in china then as far as specs
this microphone is advertised as having three polar patterns but it really has nine it has
cardioid omnidirectional and figure eight and there are six additional patterns in between
those three primary patterns we have a frequency response of 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz the tube is a
12 ax7 we have a sensitivity of around negative 34 db the signal to noise ratio is 82 db 80 db and 79
db on cardioid figure 8 and omnidirectional respectively we have a max spl of 140 db
an impedance of 100 ohms and it lists a phantom power requirement of plus 48 volts but that
doesn't make any sense it does not need 48 volts because it has its full own power supply you do
not need phantom power to power a tube condenser microphone when you have a standalone power supply
get the specs on your microphone right you dopes now i'm going to demonstrate all three
of the primary polar patterns cardioid omni and bi-directional currently i am on cardioid moving
around to 90 degrees so you can hear the off-axis rejection and coloration we'll continue around to
the rear of the microphone here is 180 degrees continuing around to the second 90 degree angle
and then rotating and ending at the front of the mic now i am on the omnidirectional
pattern moving around to 90 degrees yeah you shouldn't hear much of a difference going around
to 180 degrees here's the rear of the mic going around to the second side the second 90 degree
angle and then ending at the front of the mic and now i am on the figure 8 polar pattern i will
go ahead and rotate around to 90 degrees this should be the most dead area on the microphone
we'll continue around to the rear of the mic you should have another lobe of sensitivity here
continue around to the second dead area here second side and then rotating and ending at the
front of the mic there you go now let's see how well this microphone does at rejecting plosives
please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto
now i'm right on top of the microphone to demonstrate the proximity effect on this thing
about three inches off of the mic with it pointed at the corner of my mouth and here's how the
audio is sounding about one foot away from the microphone two feet away from the microphone and
about four feet away from the microphone now i am typing on my keyboard with gatoron blue switches
to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard it picks up people get so mad about that
and for the lead gaming folk out there now i am typing on the sad w keys
here is how the microphone sounds in a well-treated room and here
is how the microphone sounds in a completely untreated room on the cardioid polar pattern
now to see how well the provided shock mount performs i'll go ahead and bump my desk
to see how much of that noise it rejects and i'll tap on the boom arm
now i'm going to tap the microphone to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
you can hear on the grill especially if you scrape it you have that resonance you have that tone to
it the materials are not proper for a grill or a microphone's build because that will vibrate
that will cause some kind of interference on your recording that is not good to have
next i want to see how the provided foam windscreen affects the sound of the microphone
currently i'm a couple inches off and the foam windscreen is not installed and here is how it
is sounding i will blow into the capsule not a good sound let's put this on and see how it sounds
now i have installed the provided foam windscreen and it is massive
it is a big one and here is how i am sounding i can hear some of the highs
being attenuated there which on this microphone is a bit of an improvement and
a big improvement on the wind hitting the diaphragm as well because you have a lot of foam
in between you and the actual microphone now i want to do a very quick comparison between the ltm
500 and a couple of other microphones that are available around this price point to show you how
it performs against the competition like always i'll start on the mic we're reviewing this is
the ltm 500 i'm about six inches off of this thing no phantom power because it has a power supply my
gain on the focusrite 18 i20 is set at 12 o'clock and here's how it's sounding let's jump to the
first mic first up because the microphone body feels very similar to this i am now on the kneewer
nw 700 this is a very affordable microphone that goes for maybe 20 to 30 bucks six inches off gain
still at 12 o'clock and check the lower third to see how much i boosted it but here is what a 20
to 30 dollar mic sounds like compared to a tube condenser mic for 200 bucks hey we're back on
the ltm 500 so you can hear how this sounds before we jump to another one nothing has changed let's
hear the next one next up we are on the neat worker bee which is a 90 condenser microphone
just a cardioid polar pattern no filters no multi anything very basic six inches off gain
at 12 o'clock and here is how it sounds compared to a 200 tube condenser microphone back on the ltm
500 again so you can hear this and we can do a couple more microphone comparisons i'll try to
keep this short here's how my voice sounds nothing has changed same distance same gain let's jump to
the next mic next up i am on the audio technica at2020 this is an extremely popular xlr condenser
microphone that goes for about 100 dollars still six inches off still gain at 12 o'clock
and here is how this sounds compared to a tube offering at twice the price
let's do some more comparisons we are back on the ltm 500 again because why wouldn't we be we need
to do some comparisons and give you context here's how this microphone sounds six inches gain at 12.
let's do another mic next up i am on the rode nt1 this is a solid state condenser microphone
and it costs around 270 dollars so about 70 bucks more than the ltm 500 i am six inches off of this
gain at 12 o'clock what a shocker check the lower third to see how much i boosted this end post
and here is how it's sounding in comparison to a microphone that's a bit cheaper but also boasts
having a robust tube sound i don't know if they use those exact words let's do some more
comparisons now you may be wondering andrew why do you look different why does the set
look different it's because i'm recording this a different day because doing a tube comparison
takes quite a bit longer because you have to plug in different mics takes 30 minutes to warm them
all up forgive me let's do another microphone comparison now i am on the avontone cv12
this is the taylor swift microphone because apparently she was a fan of this it's a 500
dollar multi-pattern condenser microphone a very popular 500 multi-pattern condenser microphone six
inches gain is still set at 12 o'clock and here's how it's sounding let's jump to another microphone
and do more comparisons one more comparison to be exact and i believe this is going to be the
last mic we're comparing but here is the monoprice stage right ltm 500 tube multi-pattern condenser
mic catchy name guys and here's how it's sounding let's jump to one last mic and do that comparison
and lastly i am committing an absolute sin by hand holding the neumann u67 this is another
multi-pattern tube condenser microphone this one goes for about seven thousand dollars
yeah and i'm six inches off the gain is at the exact same position
and here is how the audio is sounding i'm not expecting this to be a fair comparison at all
at all i just want you to hear what one of the greatest tube microphones of all time sounds like
so you can get some context for how the ltm 500 sits amongst it among it with it i don't know the
proper terminology but here is how it's sounding and that's it for the comparisons let me know in
the comments down below which of these mics did you like the best don't include the u67
don't it's not fair ltn 500 nt1 nw 700 avon tone cv12 let me know in the comments down below
for 200 bucks do you get your money's worth will this give tube mics a good
name or will they go down in flames
now i already know the answer to this question but i would love your input please let me know in the
comments down below if you think the ltm 500 is giving you 200 worth of quality tell me down below
i guess i should start by saying no offense but i understand exactly why this microphone only costs
200 bucks but first we'll start with the pros and the off-axis coloration on the cardioid polar
pattern wasn't terrible also the shock mount did a pretty good job at rejecting bumps of the desk
and of the boom arm and it is very affordable and then as far as cons the build quality leaves
quite a bit to be desired but i'm not surprised by that because you're getting the microphone a
shock mount a power supply a 20 foot braided cable they're throwing in a lot of stuff for 200 bucks
so i'm not surprised that the build quality suffers also the materials used for the
body of the microphone and the grille do not seem to be well suited for recording because
they have their own resonance and tone to it that's going to affect it and most importantly
i don't think it sounds very good it has a very artificial and harsh sound to it but then as far
as my overall thoughts and opinions on this thing on the electric guitar it's tolerable at best i
found the lows and low mids to be a bit boxy and messy sounding the mids were undefined and then
when you get to the top end i think it gets a bit too harsh especially when you start to play
a couple of higher notes then on the acoustic guitar this is the application that i enjoyed it
on the most to put it nicely the top end is very exciting and exhilarating when you first hear it
it has a lot of liveliness to it because it is so boosted that will become grading over
time and then you have the same issue with the lows and low mids where they are undefined and
messy and just do not work then for singing no no i do not like this for singing at all
it is muddy and undefined in the low end the top end is harsh over boosted and artificial sounding
and then the mids are so confusing to me because the mid sounds scooped but at the same time they
sound nasally it's the weirdest it what it's it's a paradox it should not be a thing but it is and
lastly for spoken word i am not a fan of it in the slightest but it is usable i used it on my podcast
yesterday and some folks didn't seem to mind it too much but it's the exact same thing the lows
are boxy and muddy and unclear the mids are a bit too recessed but they also maintain a little bit
of nasality to them and then the top end is just over boosted and harsh and grainy and unappealing
it has a terrible sounding top end to my ears and to wrap up would i recommend the monoprice
stage right ltm 500 tube condenser multi-pattern microphone no i mean no offense to the monoprice
folks who designed this i just do not think this is a good sounding microphone tube or no tube i
think it offers an incredibly unappealing sound and for 200 bucks there are many other options out
there that do not have a tube that i think offer a much more versatile and much more usable tone
and i demonstrated plenty of them in this video but there is one group of people who i think i
would recommend this for and that is folks who want to tinker around with a microphone
and mod it and try different tubes out try throwing in some additional resistors try
different transformers and see what you can get to work if that's what you're going for i think
this may be an interesting platform because it is so affordable and you won't be really depressed
if you destroy the thing so if you're looking for something to mod and play around with sure if
you're looking for a usable microphone out of the box i would not recommend it alright that's it for
this week let me know in the comments down below which of the microphones did you like the best
are you excited to get into more tube microphones because i have a whole stack of them that we're
gonna be doing and i am thrilled to be getting into these if you found the video
fun interesting or helpful go ahead and give me a thumbs up hated it thumbs down
if you want more videos videos subscribe and a huge thank you to these amazing people over here
these are the members who pay five dollars and more they really do help me continue to bring you
these videos so send them a huge thank you as well and until next time i'll talk to you then what bye