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Published on 07/18/11 at 23:35
The Sennheiser E 609 is a microphone specifically built with guitar amps and cabinets in mind. When the standard for mic'ing anything goes, "Just put a Shure SM57 on everything and EQ it to make it fit better later," it can understandably get a little obnoxious to do so repeatedly, and because the SM57 is a workhorse microphone, mic'ing up most things with the SM57 falls just ever so slightly short of perfectly ideal.
Enter the Sennheiser E 609. It is a dynamic microphone with a supercardioid pickup pattern, so you can count on it picking up just what is in front of it. The Sennheiser E 609 boasts a comparatively impressive frequency response of 40-18,000 Hz, so you can count on it to pick up a few more of the nuances of a guitar through an amp than the Shure SM57, which only goes up to 15,000 Hz.
The microphone itself is unique in design, being very low profile, and side address. This makes it incredibly inconspicuous when using on stage or in the studio, and in the short time I had access to it, I found that having an E 609 in front of the guitar amp was more of a godsend than I thought. Its low profile makes sure that the E 609 never gets in the way, unlike the SM57 which will protrude from the amp. When working in cramp spaces, I can only imagine how much more secure one would feel.
The sound itself is very impressive. The SM57 is by no means a bad guitar amp microphone, but comparatively to the Sennheiser E 609, it sounds downright hollow. You just have to imagine the SM57 sound, but richer, and at the same time, a bit crispier. The low mids pop out with a sizzle that I did not previously know the low mids could have.
OVERALL OPINION
For roughly the same price as an SM57, you can have a dedicated guitar amp microphone. It's not the workhorse that the 57 is, but if you're completely aware of what you want to mic things up with, you shouldn't have to worry about not having an ideal microphone anyway. If you desperately need a guitar amp microphone just to have a guitar amp microphone, this is a great choice over the vaunted SM57.
Enter the Sennheiser E 609. It is a dynamic microphone with a supercardioid pickup pattern, so you can count on it picking up just what is in front of it. The Sennheiser E 609 boasts a comparatively impressive frequency response of 40-18,000 Hz, so you can count on it to pick up a few more of the nuances of a guitar through an amp than the Shure SM57, which only goes up to 15,000 Hz.
The microphone itself is unique in design, being very low profile, and side address. This makes it incredibly inconspicuous when using on stage or in the studio, and in the short time I had access to it, I found that having an E 609 in front of the guitar amp was more of a godsend than I thought. Its low profile makes sure that the E 609 never gets in the way, unlike the SM57 which will protrude from the amp. When working in cramp spaces, I can only imagine how much more secure one would feel.
The sound itself is very impressive. The SM57 is by no means a bad guitar amp microphone, but comparatively to the Sennheiser E 609, it sounds downright hollow. You just have to imagine the SM57 sound, but richer, and at the same time, a bit crispier. The low mids pop out with a sizzle that I did not previously know the low mids could have.
OVERALL OPINION
For roughly the same price as an SM57, you can have a dedicated guitar amp microphone. It's not the workhorse that the 57 is, but if you're completely aware of what you want to mic things up with, you shouldn't have to worry about not having an ideal microphone anyway. If you desperately need a guitar amp microphone just to have a guitar amp microphone, this is a great choice over the vaunted SM57.