You probably won’t hear the difference between these microphones. Microphone shootouts are mostly performative, at least on social media. Not only will a short segment of audio be insufficient to meaningfully evaluate the microphone, the speaker on your phone or frankly even earbuds are probably not going to reveal the subtle differences very well.
But most importantly, when you see a microphone shootout, you can safely disregard it if the microphones aren’t simultaneously capturing the same performance. The differences between the two takes are likely to be a lot greater than the differences between the two microphones. The same goes for preamplifiers.
To evaluate a pair of preamplifiers, molt one microphone into two preamps. If it’s a condenser, you won’t need phantom power on the second one. You’ve got to make every effort to compare apples and apples.
Keep the capsules as close to one another as possible and match the gain on the preamplifier. So why? Why do people continue to post videos the other way?
Well, it’s a lot easier. And frankly, it looks better. The next time you do a mic shootout at home, remember that and share it with someone who belongs in a Beat Kitchen class.
