KM184's or Josephson c42's

[silencereleven]

I've been looking at getting a pair of one of these mic's for overhead's, acoustics, piano's etc. Wanting to know your oppinions on them. Which you feel is a better all around mic. Also if you have suggestions on others you feel are better in a similar price range please let me know

Thanks

Evan

[steins]

Originally Posted by silencereleven

I've been looking at getting a pair of one of these mic's for overhead's, acoustics, piano's etc. Wanting to know your oppinions on them. Which you feel is a better all around mic. Also if you have suggestions on others you feel are better in a similar price range please let me know

Thanks

Evan

I have both. I like KM184 on acoustics and C42 as overheads. The KM184 is a bit brighter than the C42. If I had to choose, I´d keep the KM184´s.

But hey, this is Gearslutz. Get both .

A good alternative would be a pair of KM84´s.

Stein Tore

[tnjazz]

beyerdynamic MC930 is something you should probably look at before you commit to either the Josephsons or the Neumanns...

[Omicron_9]

Originally Posted by silencereleven

I've been looking at getting a pair of one of these mic's for overhead's, acoustics, piano's etc. Wanting to know your oppinions on them. Which you feel is a better all around mic. Also if you have suggestions on others you feel are better in a similar price range please let me know

Thanks

Evan

Hi Evan,

I've had both; sold the C-42, kept the 184. To my ears, in my space, the KM-184 was smoother in the top end, and MUCH less noisy. The C-42 had constant self-noise which sounded like loud tape hiss. Unusable for solo acoustic instruments, which is a lot of what I do. If you're on a budget, check out the Shure SM81, which is a bit underrated.

The best way to find out which one is right for you is to try to get them all into your space and hear how they sound to you in your space.

Again... just one opinion here.

Regards,
-0.9

[silencereleven]

Thanks very much for the replies guys. I'll take a look at the sm81's and the km84's.
Thanks

[Doublehelix]

Everybody hears things differently, and has a sound in their head that they are trying to recreate.

I did a shootout in my place a year or more ago on acoustic guitar with stereo pairs of:

Neumann KM184s (which I own)
Neumann KM84s
Josephson C42s
AKG c451 w/ CK1 caps (original, not the reissues)
Rode NT5s (I own these as well)

On THAT day with THAT guitar and THAT player, I preferred the 451s, followed by the KM184s. The Josephsons were dead last to MY ears.

That being said, the Josephsons are VERY popular, and most folks around here seem to prefer them over the KM184s.

I had a buddy of mine listen to the WAV files I made that day, and he fell in love with the Josephsons!!! Go figure!!!

Maybe I liked the KM184s because I am used to how they sound? The 451s are also on the bright side like the 184s, so maybe that is a sound that I personally prefer. You may hate them, who knows???

The moral to my rambling post? You really need to listen for yourself if you can. I know it is not always easy, but I would highly recommend at least trying to get a few different models in to try out.

Good luck!

[n8tron]

interesting comments... I own the C42s and love them, but when I tested them against the 184 the 184 was definitely darker. I was going to say basically the opposite of prety much anyone else, if you want a little darker get a 184 or a c42 if you want it brighter. That being said, they were very similar sounding mics. I think the C42s are a better deal.

[Fletcher]

This is one of those places where "sense of aesthetic" is most obvious... one man's "bright" is another man's "harsh"... one man's "air" is another man's "bright"... and yeah, the output of the KM-184 can just about be measured in horsepower... but I've never experienced an unacceptable noise floor with the C-42.

I reckon a lot of the decision process will come down to how much you like the 3-4kHz range of audio. The KM-184 is a lot more forward sounding in that region which makes it "harsh" to my ears... and the C-42 has a measure more of the 10-12kHz thing going on which usually makes it a bit more musically pleasing to my sense of aesthetic [but that's just me... YMMV].

Peace.

[oceantracks]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

This is one of those places where "sense of aesthetic" is most obvious... one man's "bright" is another man's "harsh"... one man's "air" is another man's "bright"... and yeah, the output of the KM-184 can just about be measured in horsepower... but I've never experienced an unacceptable noise floor with the C-42.

I reckon a lot of the decision process will come down to how much you like the 3-4kHz range of audio. The KM-184 is a lot more forward sounding in that region which makes it "harsh" to my ears... and the C-42 has a measure more of the 10-12kHz thing going on which usually makes it a bit more musically pleasing to my sense of aesthetic [but that's just me... YMMV].

Peace.

Yep, horses for courses. And...

"mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid"

All of music is a grid. Called barlines. The emotion is within them.



TH

[Kris]

You should most definately try them and decide... Fletcher said it right. Though for me, I came to the exact opposite conclusion based upon what I was looking for.