The Blue Encore 100 microphone is Blue's entry into the world of hand held microphones. This particular microphone is a dynamic microphone, and the element is biased in a cardioid polar pattern. There are many nice things about this microphone. It first off, looks incredibly glitzy and feels incredibly solid. The grooves on the side are nice. The microphone has a frequency response that begins down at a typical 50 Hz and extends up to a run of the mill 15,000 Hz. Like a lot of dynamic microphones that are meant to be used in a live setting, it is able to handle a lot of sound pressure. It can go up to 147 dB of sound pressure level before incurring any potential damage or distorting significantly. This microphone is pretty, and I feel like Blue's tendency to put a lot of their money into the look of the microphones shows here. It is certainly something that will draw a lot of attention to itself.

OVERALL OPINION

One thing I found out about the Blue Encore 100 is that it is a fairly soft microphone, not in output or sound level but rather in its tone. I find that it is a better choice for softer voices or voices that are more inclined to crooning or singing more classically. It lacks the midrange punch that the industry standard SM58 has, but it imparts this nice sweet tone to the sound. Because of this, I could not recommend it to the type of singer that ever seems to prefer any of the classic Shure microphone over any of the others. This microphone is not terribly forgiving, but it is certainly a pretty mic that will most definitely turn heads when you get on stage with it. It is certainly a different flavor, priced the same as every other mic in this sector.