Buying a condenser microphone... AKA Shure or Behringer?

[Jovianknight]

My little home studio is slowly growing. I have an sm57, an sm8, and a beta 52. I have a drumset, and want to use the sm57 on the snare, the beta on the kick, and now I'm looking to buy two condensers as overheads.

I think I saw someone here talking about Oktava Mk012's on here before, and I looked into the awhile ago. None of my local stores carry them, and I have an irrational fear of buying this sort of stuff online, so that won't be happening.

The Shure KSM27 looks good for me, but it's about $300 US. That's pretty steep for me. So I looked at some Behringer mics, and found the B-2 Pro Condenser Microphone. It's half the price. I read all the specs of both of them, but honestly, a lot of it goes right over my head. So I was hoping that someone here could help me out.

Are the two mics comparable? I mean, are they the same type of mic, just by different companies?

I'm leaning towards the Behringer seeing as it is half the price, and appears, to me, to do the same thing as the shure. Anyway, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Even if you suggest another brand or something... thanks in advance!

[Moseph]

My little home studio is slowly growing. I have an sm57, an sm8, and a beta 52. I have a drumset, and want to use the sm57 on the snare, the beta on the kick, and now I'm looking to buy two condensers as overheads.

I think I saw someone here talking about Oktava Mk012's on here before, and I looked into the awhile ago. None of my local stores carry them, and I have an irrational fear of buying this sort of stuff online, so that won't be happening.

The Shure KSM27 looks good for me, but it's about $300 US. That's pretty steep for me. So I looked at some Behringer mics, and found the B-2 Pro Condenser Microphone. It's half the price. I read all the specs of both of them, but honestly, a lot of it goes right over my head. So I was hoping that someone here could help me out.

Are the two mics comparable? I mean, are they the same type of mic, just by different companies?

I'm leaning towards the Behringer seeing as it is half the price, and appears, to me, to do the same thing as the shure. Anyway, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Even if you suggest another brand or something... thanks in advance!


Let's not go into how they sound, because that's subjective and also maybe you can't hear the difference.

Instead, consider other reasons mics are expensive: designs are better, the materials are sturdier, and there is more consistency between two mics of the same model.

With that in mind, I'd say go with the Shures if you can afford them. Behringer gear is notorious for being breakable, and also for simply burning out on you. Shure, for the most part, has a good reputation for dependability.

If you can't afford those particular mics, try checking out stuff that's a little cheaper. With a little work, even less expensive products can sound good.

I'd also recommend going to the store and demoing mics if you're going to buy them. That way if you don't like them, you have nobody to blame except yourself because you went and heard them and decided in the store they sounded good.

[xgretschx]

I would go with the shure sm 57 There really great mic's and can be used for everything. LIke if you decide you want to sing through them play guitar through them they wrok great for everything and are inexpensive for such a good mic.

[himynameistweek]

behringer gear is really only notorious for being breakable among people who have never used it.
you will get better quality out of the shure mic, but in my opinion, it's nowhere near enough difference to justify doubling the price. to me, if you double the price, you'd better get **** near doubling the quality. behringer mics are very good. shure mics are great. on a scale of 1-10 the behringer is an 8.5 and the shure is a 9.5
if that's enough difference to make you want to spend twice as much, by all means, get the shure.

[Aus_rock_god]

Shure all the way dude. Behringer stuff is more or less budget gear that breaks easily. The sound quality is generally good, but it doesn't take much to get a blowout on a Behringer.

[Nicko_Shmicko]

I've had the behringer B1 condenser about a year, sounds as good as my rode nt-1 and I havnt had a problem with blowing the diaphram or breaking it or anything. I have a fair bit of behringer gear...in my opinion, it is very good for it's price, but not as good as more established names like shure and AKG, it just depends on how much money you want to spend.

[Moseph]

behringer gear is really only notorious for being breakable among people who have never used it.
you will get better quality out of the shure mic, but in my opinion, it's nowhere near enough difference to justify doubling the price. to me, if you double the price, you'd better get **** near doubling the quality. behringer mics are very good. shure mics are great. on a scale of 1-10 the behringer is an 8.5 and the shure is a 9.5
if that's enough difference to make you want to spend twice as much, by all means, get the shure.


I've had the behringer B1 condenser about a year, sounds as good as my rode nt-1 and I havnt had a problem with blowing the diaphram or breaking it or anything. I have a fair bit of behringer gear...in my opinion, it is very good for it's price, but not as good as more established names like shure and AKG, it just depends on how much money you want to spend.


I own Behringer gear. Quite a bit actually. A UB2442FX PRO mixer, a DSP110, two ULTRA-G DI's, and a 3 pack of Ultravoice XM8500s. Out of all of that, the only thing I really expect to work well for a while are the DIs.

The 3 mics are roughly 1/2 the weight of the Shure SM58 which they are based off of. They're just not made of the same quality stuff as the 58's. And we'll ignore that they don't sound as good either.

The DSP tends to get dangerously close to overheating. It can get hot to the touch if it runs in a room temperature environment for about an hour.

The mixer has its own set of issues, but I can tell just by handling it that it's chassis is made of aluminum foil.

I've had all of this stuff for 1-2 years. Still no problems with operation from any of it. It's been my experience that people who swear by Behringer simply don't have a whole lot of experience with better gear.

Let me put it this way: if somebody offered you a trade for your Behringer gear for a similar product made by Shure (or low-end Mackie or Yamaha if we're not talking microphones), would you decline?

[himynameistweek]

well, if the trade was between a b-2 and a ksm27, yes, i would. the point i was trying to make wasn't that behringer was better than shure, only that it's a much better value. like i said, shure is twice the cost, but nowhere near twice the quality.
as for the xm8500's, i have one, and the singer in my band has a shure sm58, and the sound is nearly identical.

[Galactus]

We use the Shure beta 87-A's as overheads and they sound great, but we have always used them so I don't have much to compare them to.

We also use the beta 52 on the kick, but it leaves much to be desired in the high end as far as I am concerned, the frequency response is only 20hz-10,000 khz. The AKG D-112 kick mics sound pretty good from what I have heard, they have a frequency response of 20hz -17,000 khz.

[Moseph]

well, if the trade was between a b-2 and a ksm27, yes, i would. the point i was trying to make wasn't that behringer was better than shure, only that it's a much better value.

okay, but isn't value a measure of what is gained in the long term? I'm just saying that if you buy the Behringer for $150, and it dies in 4 years (I'm giving it an overestimate) versus buying the Shure for $300 and having it last for 25+ years, isn't that a better value? The Behringers are easily broken and hard to service, aside from sounding vastly worst: I'd say go for the ksm27 for sure.

as for the xm8500's, i have one, and the singer in my band has a shure sm58, and the sound is nearly identical.

Either that's not an sm58, or something is funny somewhere on your end. I've used them both extensively, and the 58's are way clearer. Obviously all the differences are harder to hear using lesser quality preamps, monitors, and A/D /A converters, but it's definitely there.

[himynameistweek]

if you know how to take care of your equipment, the behringer will outlast the owner.

[Hadji]

Why not get a matched pair of PG-81's for $200 and call it a deal?

[Moseph]

if you know how to take care of your equipment, the behringer will outlast the owner.

Maybe. Maybe not. The power handling requirements in particular aren't notorious for being well tested or well regulated, so parts burn out during normal use on Behringer gear way more frequently than they should.

What do you want to bet that they don't go through any more rigorous processes in quality control of their microphones? And there's a lot more stuff to go wrong in a microphone: tranducers are moving parts, and phantom power needs to be accomodated, both of which are often more sensitive in application than a resistor or potentiometer.