Have we been paying too much for our Mics?

Review by Wayne Cheary [Husky Electronics]

I have questioned this since Rode had their “buy one top end mic and get one general purpose mic for $1.”sale.  My Rode $1 mics are brilliant, still use them alongside the industry stalwart Shure SM58.

LSW made me aware of a new release from Wharfedale, the DM57 and DM 5.0pro mics at crazy low prices.

So I bought one of each. Thinking, “must be rubbish at that price.” How wrong I was.

First impression, well made, good balance in hand, “expensive” style grill, mimicking Sennheiser etc, gold plated XLR pins.

The nitty gritty……

On stage…. Lots of output, needed to drop channel gain down a few db to match the same sound level from Beta 58’s.  Found the pattern to be in between cardioid and omni, good to aid spurious pickup from drums and guitar amps, definitely a plus in my books especially when using these guys as vocal mics.

I found it difficult to differentiate between the sound of both mics. Side by side, identical desk settings, damn near identical. No discernible difference in live situation.

The vocal sound, clean, crisp, plenty of natural top end and when close in, the expected proximity effect kicks in. In my ear I found the increase in bottom end to muddy the sound a little but move off the grill by about 20mm, pleasant. Even made me sound good. 

Overall impression…..worth buying a few more especially if hiring in karaoke where you get the spit and cigarette breath clogging up mics. Can afford to lose a few.

Didn’t do a drop test so no idea if they bounce and still work.

General stage use…. I reckon I shall introduce them into other amp miking and so forth.

Wharfedale could be on a winner here.

Wayne Cheary

Husky Electronics

Radio Station & Recording Studio design and construction.

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