View other reviews for this product:
moosers
Published on 11/08/09 at 18:56
M-Audio's Sputnik is a tube condenser microphone that is designed for use inside the recording studio. It has a switchable polar pick up pattern that includes settings for figure eight, omnidirectional and cardioid. It comes with a variety of items including a power supply, a shockmount, and a case.
OVERALL OPINION
I first used the M-Audio Sputnik tube condenser microphone a few months ago after hearing some good things about it. While I wasn't expecting too much from it since it isn't expensive and is made by a company that isn't exactly known for making microphones, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that this is a very good sounding microphone. I do believe that this is about as cheap as you get go to get a good condenser mic and really wasn't expecting all that much because of this budget price tag. However, the sound is pretty warm and makes for a great vocal microphone. While I probably wouldn't recommend this to a professional engineer as this is on the low end of the spectrum in terms of good sounding tube mics, it is the perfect tube microphone for a home studio owner looking for that tube mic sound for a fraction of the price. I'm definitely skeptical of cheap microphones as I tend to believe that they are too good to be true and still don't exactly trust M-Audio to make high quality microphones, but they are definitely offering up a bargain here. I also appreciate that they give you a nice case for it as tube microphones are fragile and need to be handled with care regardless of the price. While I don't own one of these for my home studio, I did use it a someone else's home studio so I can definitely say that it will sound good in a home studio as opposed to a professional studio. If you are looking for one of the cheapest tube microphones out there while still getting a good quality mic, definitely check out Sputnik.
OVERALL OPINION
I first used the M-Audio Sputnik tube condenser microphone a few months ago after hearing some good things about it. While I wasn't expecting too much from it since it isn't expensive and is made by a company that isn't exactly known for making microphones, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that this is a very good sounding microphone. I do believe that this is about as cheap as you get go to get a good condenser mic and really wasn't expecting all that much because of this budget price tag. However, the sound is pretty warm and makes for a great vocal microphone. While I probably wouldn't recommend this to a professional engineer as this is on the low end of the spectrum in terms of good sounding tube mics, it is the perfect tube microphone for a home studio owner looking for that tube mic sound for a fraction of the price. I'm definitely skeptical of cheap microphones as I tend to believe that they are too good to be true and still don't exactly trust M-Audio to make high quality microphones, but they are definitely offering up a bargain here. I also appreciate that they give you a nice case for it as tube microphones are fragile and need to be handled with care regardless of the price. While I don't own one of these for my home studio, I did use it a someone else's home studio so I can definitely say that it will sound good in a home studio as opposed to a professional studio. If you are looking for one of the cheapest tube microphones out there while still getting a good quality mic, definitely check out Sputnik.