Sennheiser e 825 S

Vocal microphones are always an up and down buy, especially when you are dealing with microphones in this price range. But with the Sennheiser E825S you will get pretty good recordings but nothing that will make you feel like you got a great microphone. This microphone is very rugged and made to last the home recording artist a long time. But the range of this microphone does not sit right with me. I have had many issues when recording other artist (mainly females) and trying to pick up the high frequencies they put off. When recording myself with it and other male artist everything is fine and the tone is very warm and full. Females have higher frequencies (in most cases) and when using the Sennheiser E825S on their voices I felt like the high end frequencies would get slightly muffled and were not as clean and crisp as they should be.

OVERALL OPINION

I was using this mic a lot back in 2006 to 2007 and it was one of my main microphones because I just did not have money at the time to upgrade. For the price I really did not expect to get much better than this, but after using other microphones that cost a lot more has allowed me to see just how many flaws this microphone has. While I was using it I knew that something was not right but I was in the early stages of my career and just could not put my finger on it. Now that I am more seasoned in recording and have worked with better gear I see what the issues where.
If you are looking to spend less than 100 dollars and need a vocal microphone I prefer going with the Shure SM mics. They will give you a great recording and can be a more versatile microphone than the E825S can be.

Sennheiser has always had a fairly good reputation, there are several Sennheiser mics that are literally studio staples now. The Evolution series 825S was an instant classic for me. I first used these right when the Evolution series was first launched. At the time I was working as soundman for a jazz club. I must admit at first I complained to the owner, "Why didn't you buy the Shure 58's and 57's that I told you to?" After a few evenings with the E825S's I was completely sold and cursing myself for being a hardnose. Obviously, my first instinct was to use them as vocal mics, but then I started experimenting with using them on piano, upright bass, and even as a drum overhead! All I can say is that I was very impressed with the clarity and durability of the E825S, not that your typical jazz musician is overly rough on equipment, mics will be dropped and cables will be stepped on, yanking the xlr out of the mic. These mics stood up to the challenge and have won a special appreciation from me as being a very solid choice for live situations. At the time, through a special arrangement with certain groups and the management, I recorded many, many live performances and the E825S always held it's own. As a standard cardioid mic it's clarity is impressive, I always ran it through an 'almost' limiting compressor and it produced a very warm, rich vocal sound every time. Dare I say, if given the choice between a 58 or the E825S, I honestly would choose the Sennheieser. Sorry Shure!!
Have you ever had a screamer in your studio? The kind of guy that you wouldn't trust to even look at your nicer condenser mics? Well, in most cases that's where your trusty standard cardioid mics come out to play. Give the man a E825S and let him scream and spit all over it, it can take it, and still sound pretty darn good too.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, the E825S is a really solid choice for live applications and can come in handy in the studio. In my opinion it's better than the Shure 58 for vocal and it can hold it's own on snare and toms. For a musician or club owner on a budget it's definetly worth buying one or two, you may very well find yourself buying some more.

The Sennheiser E825S mic is a very affordable dynamic microphone that will be perfect for your home recording conditions. It will sound great no matter (well almost) no matter what your home set up is. If your room that you are recording in at home is a decent size, and not too big unless you have a lot of treatment or furniture in your room , it will sound great. It will sound a lot better than a less than 100 dollar mic. Most 100 or less dollar mics sound exactly like that. They sound cheap and you will have to do a ton of Eqing when using most cheap mics. I hate using cheaper mics because I always have to end up boosting the high frequencies and cutting too much of the low end off. And once you start doing that you will start to hear a really muddiness to what you just recorded. It will only get worse and worse the more you have to do to the audio file that you just recording when you have to eq to much.


OVERALL OPINION

With the e825 you wont have to do to much eq at all. Just a little boost on the high end and I usually always cut out the really low end frequencies that you cant hear anyways just to make it sound cleaner and not have all the energy going to wasted space with frequencies that wont get picked up. The Sennheiser E825S is also very well built and light. You can travel with it and take it places without the fear of it getting broke, and even if it does get broke its not like you broke a 500 dollar mic. Its really cheap to replace which is always good because over time stuff will cause problems. I haven't been using this mic long enough yet to experience any problems and hopefully I wont for a long long time.

The Sennheiser E 825 S is a dynamic microphone designed for live vocal work. While I can tell you now that I would probably pick it over several other entry level microphones, the E 825 S does not avoid the markings of a budget microphone. It may have a frequency response that goes all the way up to the expected 15,000 Hz, but the bottom cuts out at 80 Hz. This is not something typical of a quality microphone, but I hesitate to call the Sennheiser E 825 S shoddy in any way whatsoever. But I would never buy it, for reasons stated in "Overall Opinion."

The 825 has a cardioid response, which is typical. I found that the microphone does actually offer a nice level of clarity, even over some of the standard microphones (but then again, everything seems less muddy than an SM58 when I have a richer baritone voice). It also has an on/off switch, that never stops irking me for the simple shallow cosmetic preference I have.

OVERALL OPINION

The Sennheiser E 825 S is Sennheiser's entry level microphone for stage work. It is my no means a terrible microphone in this regard; in fact, I find that it is actually quite comparable to even some of the less budget oriented microphones from other companies. That being said, at its price point, it cannot compete with the next microphone up which is a standard: The Sennheiser E 835 is a staple microphone for many people. Several people believe that the Sennheiser E 835 kills the vaunted Shure SM58. So maybe the E 825 S was not built to compete with it, but at only $20 less new than the E 835, it sure seems like it is trying.

What is rather bothersome about this is that understandably, $20 can stack up over several microphones. However, Sennheiser also sells a three pack of the E 835 for $10 less than three E 825 S microphones would cost. So, there is very little reason to settle for this and not go for the next one up.