here's a little shootout between the akg c214 and a line audio cm3. both mics have their foam windshield on, cause i had no popkiller around...
akg c214 ldc around 399$
line audio cm3 sdc around 150$ (swedish mic)
same distances to both capsules and same performance (moving back and forth to the mics). the mics were amplifyed through a line audio 2mp, 100hz lowcut in. the files are rms-levelmatched. wav's added.
i know, both aren't real vocal mics, but i was quite shocked about what i heard. preferring one of those mics by miles on voice (and everything else).
edit: the akg c214 first had the mic-lowcut in, which sounded horrible. new files uploaded, now it sounds better.
I uploaded the files and listened to them in Wavelab. The AKG sounds better there than from Soundstrips and I did not find the difference between both mics as large like in my first listening. The difference between both mics is at least as much in the highs than in the lows as shown by the attached spectrum. It shows CM3 response being higher below 100 Hz, the discrepancy being equal to about 3 dB at 80 Hz while the C214 has a bump between 7 and 16 kHz culminating around 12 kHz (+ 7 dB), which is rather consistent with the frequency response provided by AKG.
CM3 has more noise below 70 Hz likely because its extended low end makes it sensitive to vibrations from the stand as mentioned here. The cut above 17 kHz results from mp3 compression.
I prefer the AKG C 214..much smoother sounding regarding the top end. The line audio's top end sound somewhat more 'brittle' and / or peaky to my ears.
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