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I've heard several 87s from the 70's to brand new sparkly overpriced anniversary editions lined up all at once tested with the same voice–and they all sounded negligibly close. The main difference is the gain; the new ones are almost line-level.
Anyway, I love the 89 but always thought they sounded weird on close-up studio vocals. I'm surprised to hear someone say they're darker than an 87. The 87 has a smiley-curve frequency response whereas the 89 has a high shelf, and this is what it sounds like to me. The 89 does have a nice low end but the high end sounded really odd on voice to me–almost grainy in a way. Much better suited to instruments in my opinion (or perhaps distant choir/classical vocals).
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