Advice on SD condesners required

[pieter]

I am in the market for a pair of small diaphragm condensers.

I already have a pair of vintage C451s with CK1 capsule as well as the new DPA 4092 omnis.

I can get Josephsons for about 1000 EUR and Shoeps CMC + MK4Vs for around 1650 EUR.

Are the Shoeps mics to be considered an overall better mic or does it again depend on the situation ?

Any regular users ?

[Zwinter]

Originally Posted by pieter

I am in the market for a pair of small diaphragm condensers.

I already have a pair of vintage C451s with CK1 capsule as well as the new DPA 4092 omnis.

I can get Josephsons for about 1000 EUR and Shoeps CMC + MK4Vs for around 1650 EUR.

Are the Shoeps mics to be considered an overall better mic or does it again depend on the situation ?

Any regular users ?

Personally I love the Josephson's. I use them all over the place and they have never let me down. There great on high-hats, as overheads, and even in live situations on instruments (used them personally as a percussion and guitar mics). I enjoy the top end they have that is bright, yet not harsh.

I was also surprised at the bottom end they had when I used them as a percussion overhead mic. This percussion player had a combination of various drums and copper pots that he played with thimbles. [It was this gipsy jazz group who opened for a pop John Mayer (when he used to be poppy and play for the girls) style of band. They were so good the mostly 19-20 year old girl crowd stood there in amazement.] I had spot mic'd all of the drums because I wanted to capture the bottom end and figured the mono C42 overhead wouldn’t do it. I ended up not needed any of the spot mics. The mono C42 captured everything. So I muted all of the other percussion channels and had one of the best percussions sounds I have ever had.

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by pieter

I am in the market for a pair of small diaphragm condensers.

I already have a pair of vintage C451s with CK1 capsule as well as the new DPA 4092 omnis.

I can get Josephsons for about 1000 EUR and Shoeps CMC + MK4Vs for around 1650 EUR.

Are the Shoeps mics to be considered an overall better mic or does it again depend on the situation ?

Any regular users ?

I don't know the Josephsons, but I do know the schoeps well, and they are an extremely 'musical' microphone. tough to beat.

[drBill]

Since you're in europe, I'd also suggest that you put Gefell 692/M70's on your list to check out.

[jnorman]

i've owned pairs of schoeps cmc64s, and while i liked them as a main pair out front, i found them to be too boomy for most close micing in the studio. my two favorite pairs of SD condensers these days are the DPA 4011s, and the akg c481s.

[pieter]

Any other opinions ?

[ISedlacek]

As far the cardioid is concerned, Schoeps MK4V sound somehow better than MK4. It would be difficult to find something more musical and universal than a pair of Schoeps MK21 (wide cardioid). MK2 is very nice flat omni.
Once I did a direct comparison Schoeps vs DPA (4006, 4011)) and I invariably found Schoeps to be more pleasant and "musical" sounding to my ears, while DPA sounded a bit "colder", too "linear" ...

Few times I tried to improve and upgrade my microphone collection by testing and comparing various mics, but so far did not find any microphone that would be worth to keep besides Schoeps

[Dot]

Originally Posted by pieter

I am in the market for a pair of small diaphragm condensers.

Are the Shoeps mics to be considered an overall better mic or does it again depend on the situation ?

It depends on the situation. We're in the dark about what you're doing. So give us some info on what you're wanting in a new pair of mics. What are you mostly recording, and what applications do you have?

[pieter]

I'm doing mostly funk and jazz. I primarily need them for drum overheads although versatility is important given the fact I'm a smaller studio.