- [Tom] Not long ago,
I compared the least expensive podcasting mic
that I could find on Amazon to my Rode Podmic,
and in the comments for that video
Tkibbs14 recommended
the Pyle PDMIC78
for $14.
(moderate music)
Now, my goal isn't to just buy every cheap mic on Amazon,
but this one is particularly interesting to me.
The newer mic that I used last time
does borrow from many existing designs,
but ultimately, it has its own identity.
This mic, on the other hand,
is a direct knockoff of the legendary Shure SM57.
(moderate music)
And I happen to have a Shure SM57 that I bought back in 2005
and it still works and looks like new.
Shure has been making these microphones since 1965
and they've proven themselves time and again
as being outstanding and reliable
and capable of delivering incredibly high quality.
But 15 years ago as a broke college student,
it was tough for me to set aside $100 for a microphone.
At the time,
if there was a good $14 option like this,
that would have been a lot easier for me to afford.
I'm guessing that 15 years later,
that's still the case
and there are a lot of people out there who
don't have $100 budget for a microphone,
but $14 is very achievable.
So let's check out this Pyle microphone and see
if it's actually a pile.
Lift this up, see the mic itself.
(amazement tune)
Oh, look, I left my light in here.
And of course, the actual
star of the show,
the microphone itself, the Pyle PDMIC,
which right away you can see the Pyle mic
and the Shure are almost identical.
So these mics look really similar to one another.
The Shure is slightly ever so slightly taller,
but otherwise they're exactly the same.
They have what feels like the same metal casing.
The Shure definitely is heavier than the Pyle mic,
but this doesn't feel
this doesn't feel cheap or anything,
it feels like a decent microphone.
Let's look into that a little bit further.
So while I'm setting these up,
did you guys hear
that Apple is developing a really small iPhone?
Yeah, they're calling it the MicroPhone.
So we're gonna grab these mic stands.
I'm gonna run both of these mics
through the Roadcaster Pro with zero effects added
and zero equalization at it.
So they're just gonna be on the
standard dynamic mic setting.
Right now of course, you're listening to the
Rode Videomic Pro+ ,
which is my standard video microphone.
This is the Shure right here
that I'm talking into right now.
And the thing about this microphone is
it's typically used as an instrument microphone.
It's not always used for voice.
So most commonly you would find it being used for amps
for guitars and bass and whatever,
drums, wind instruments, basically, any kind of instrument.
You go into any music studio, around the world
and you're gonna find these things there.
It can work as a vocal microphone though
it doesn't have really much of a built in pop filter
so a lot of the pa pa pa plosives
really kind of stand out a lot,
but they do make a pop filter for it.
And if I put that on it,
it makes it much more usable as a vocal microphone.
So just, pa pa pa plosives
pa pa pa plosives.
Pa pa pa plosives, pa pa pa plosives.
Since these two mics are the same design,
this pop filter fits perfectly on the Pyle mic as well
although ironically,
since this is the actual Shure branded pop filter,
it costs more than this entire microphone itself.
So I don't know
if you'd actually want to spend the money on that
if you're on that much of a budget
where you're going for the $14 microphone.
It really does work as a vocal mic.
When I started my podcast,
this was the mic I had
so it was the one that I used when I first got
the Rodecaster Pro
because they didn't have anything else and it sounded great.
And like I said, this specific microphone
is 15 years old and it's just a dynamic microphone
so it doesn't require phantom power or any batteries
so much like the Swiss flag it's a huge plus in my book.
And before we jump into testing,
these mics look exactly the same.
The Shure is the one that's on my left,
and the Pyle is the one that's on my right.
Let's put some tape on them just to make it easier.
Can you see that?
Shure and here is the Pyle microphone.
As I'm talking, whichever mic I'm talking into,
this is the one that you're hearing.
If I'm not talking into either of these,
then it's gonna be the Rode Videomic Pro+,
just so we're all on the same page with that.
Now right now I'm using the SM 57
and I actually took a break from recording
so that I could play around with these mics
and kind of get used to the,
to the Pyle and see what it sounds like.
And the thing is,
I'm really impressed with it.
Like I was kind of expecting it to sound pretty awful,
but I think that it's really usable
like shockingly so.
So I'm gonna take the pop filter off
so that comparison is more direct.
This is the SM 57
and this is the Pyle microphone,
again both mics with no EQ,
no added effects or anything like that.
Just dry straight out of
the box basically
and I think the first thing that you'll notice
is that the Pyle mic is slightly more trebly.
There's a little bit more on the high end there
and there is, I can hear it my headphones,
I don't know if you can hear it
as you're watching this video back.
They're both set to the same gain setting
so they're both at on the Rodecaster Plus 35.
That's just to get the signal
high enough so you can hear it.
There's slightly more hiss on the
Pyle microphone than the Shure, but not much.
I'm kind of impressed with how this mic sounds.
It's really clear,
pa pa pa pa pa,
even though it's a little different than the Shure.
The Shure is definitely more of
a full sound, a richer sound.
This one sounds pretty good.
And again, this is no equalization,
pa pa pa pa,
pa pa pa pa.
And if I put the pop filter,
put the pop filter on, it really helps
and now we've got
what I think is actually sounding
like a really usable microphone for $14.
Now what I can do in the Rodecaster
is I can go into this channel for
the Pyle microphone and I can add in some of the processing,
like I can enable some bass.
So here's straight out of the box
and then here's with a little bit of bass enabled.
And now if I go between those,
here's the Pyle microphone,
and the Shure microphone.
The sounds are starting to come together a little bit more.
And I think that they're matching each other pretty well.
I still think that the Shure sounds better out of the box,
but it took very little EQ
for me to get this $14 microphone to sound like it.
In fact, like I said before,
if I just go through and turn off all equalization,
it's still a really good sounding mic.
I like it a lot.
Now one thing I was curious about
is I wanted to see if there are any
internal differences between these microphones.
So I actually took them apart a little bit,
not like totally disassembled but it just sort of unscrewed
so you can see inside them
and what I noticed
was that right away the Shure shows a bit more quality
in terms of workmanship, but it is also a heavier microphone
weighing in at
279 grams
while the Pyle microphone weighs in at 184 grams
and part of that is
in the Shure, in the base of it,
you can kind of see there's this material,
that's, I don't know what it is.
If it's an insulator or if it's sort of just helping
improve durability, improve sound, add weight to it,
but I think that's where a lot of the weight comes from.
You can kind of just also notice,
inside the Shure microphone,
the parts and the metals just seem to be
crafted a little bit better.
It does not mean that the Pyle microphone
is bad internally at all.
Now, since these are mainly used as instrument mics,
I think that's a good way to test it out.
This is heavy.
I got my guitar amp right here, it's really heavy.
It's important to remember here
we're just testing the sound of the microphone,
we're not judging musical ability.
So it's important to be kind.
So I'll position each microphone.
This amp has one speaker right in the middle of it.
There we go, this isn't
like a totally scientific test or anything of course
but they're basically gonna be picking up the same sound
from where they're at right now.
(guitar playing)
So in the end while I am really impressed
with this Pyle microphone,
I'm actually a bit
torn and basically,
the reason for that is because
I've said it before and I'll say it again,
it's best to buy once and buy quality
or it's best to buy quality and buy once
because then you know,
even though you might have spent a little bit more money,
the thing that you spent your money on
is going to last forever.
The Shure SM57 has that reputation.
You know that this is gonna last forever,
even though it's $100 which is not pocket change.
The Pyle microphone,
we just don't know what its durability is gonna be
and that's something we're not gonna know
just until time goes on.
But the thing about this though is
for $14
you can't go wrong
and if it were me back 15 years ago
and I'm a broke college kid
and I want a microphone to record my guitar,
this would be perfect.
This would have saved me so much time
and so much money and so much stress.
So there's definitely a need for this
and it's a decent microphone overall for sure.
Speaking of Shure,
the part where I'm really torn is,
it's one thing to create a good microphone,
but it's another to actually develop that good microphone.
So while the Pyle microphone turns out not to be a pile
and actually delivers great quality,
Shure is the one,
they're the company that came up with this design
in 1965 and they're the ones that have been
producing these microphones.
They have the support and the reputation
that kind of comes with creating something
that has become so good.
And I think that that's worth something
because anybody can come in and create something
based off an existing design,
but not everybody can make that original design.
It's kind of like playing the guitar,
I can play other people's songs,
and it might sound okay
but that's not the same as
being the person that wrote those songs and created them
and put them out into the world.
And I know that that's more of a philosophical point
and if you're just looking at this
from a budget perspective, you don't care
about the corporation's feelings or whatever
and you just want the best mic you can get for your money,
but in the end, I like supporting a company that's gonna be
innovative and develop new things
and that has that reputation
because that's what's gonna create new stuff
that other people can then copy and follow.
So if you could choose between these two mics
and money is not an option,
you gotta go with the Shure all the way.
If you're on that limited budget for $14
this is an excellent microphone.
I actually like it better than the newer microphone
that I reviewed in the other video, which was $25.
But this one right out of the box sounds a lot better
and I would rather have a couple of these
than a couple of these to be totally honest with you.
But of course if you're still looking for
which microphone is right for you,
here are a couple of my other comparison videos
for you to check out
and to me that's something that sounds
like a good idea.
Sounds.
(guitar playing)