Review of very low cost condenser mic's on e-bay

Joshua_G said:
Unless I didn't get you correctly, it looks like you are convinced that the LyxPro mikes are identical to the Little Gem ones. I'm not convinced either way. Do you have a Little Gem to compare to the LyxPro?
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Nope, I was agreeing with you!

There is no way I will know anything for sure until I get the mic's and try them out.

I do not need to compare them directly to the Gem, as my only interest is that they work okay for my needs. Hoping they will work well with the hypercardioid cap's for inside dialog, and the cardioid cap's for stereo, I already have a couple of decent omni's.
 
graywolf said:
Nope, I was agreeing with you!

There is no way I will know anything for sure until I get the mic's and try them out.

I do not need to compare them directly to the Gem, as my only interest is that they work okay for my needs. Hoping they will work well with the hypercardioid cap's for inside dialog, and the cardioid cap's for stereo, I already have a couple of decent omni's.
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In this case, your statement: "Lots of Little Gem reviews out there, only those on Amazon for the LyxPro" is incorrect. There are 'reviews' of the LyxPro on Amazon, but none of the Little Gem.

The possible sameness, or difference, between the two interests me only because of I'm going to conduct a comparison review of few mikes. I'm not going to purchase the LyxPro just for the sake of this review, and I have no use for more than the 2 'Little Gem's that I ordered.

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For interior dialog on location, depending on: (1) the nature and the location of the reverberations (sound waves reflected from walls, ceiling and furniture), (2) the location of the voice(s) and (3) the location and direction of the mike - sometimes hyper-cardioid is better, while at other times cardioid is better. Generally speaking, when there are prominent reflections from the direction of the back of the mike, a cardioid will be better than hyper-cardioid. When there are less reflections from the direction of the back of the mike and more reflections from the sides, hyper-cardioid will be better. Practically, if conditions allow, the best way to determine which gives better results in a given situation is to try both. Anyhow, having 2 mikes, or 1 mike with 2 capsules, is an advantage.
 
graywolf said:
I posted a quick look at the LyxPro mic's, that arrived today, on my blog:

http://graywolfphoto.com/journal/2016/11/29/more-toys/

They do, in a quick test to see if they both worked, sound a lot better than the price would suggest.
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Nobody can test every single mic out there, so good on you for giving this a look/listen. I don't know you, but I'm a great believer in trusting your own ears, so I take your judgment of these at face value. One thing I'd like to note though - when you say (in your blog entry): "Since Hyper/Super-Cardioid are used a lot in film production. I tried one of them with the Super-Cardioid Capsule. Sounded quite okay to me.", based on that statement ("Sounded quite okay to me") it's very hard to reach any conclusions about the actual utility and how good they sounded. The reason is that a film production mic cannot really be evaluated the way you have set it up - in a stationary position, fixed distance at all times, in an unknown environment. It may sound great under those circumstances, but those are not the conditions under which a mic is likely to be used a lot of the time. It tells us nothing about how the handling noise is, if you should use it on a boom - some mics are very resilient, others pick up every little handling noise - and that factors into "how good the mic is for film production"; same problem when you have to move the mic - is it particularly sensitive to air movement; how good/bad is it at rejecing/accepting off-axis sound (in case of mics that have a given pattern of pickup/rejection); is it sensitive to temperature/moisture. And so on. A mic can sound great under the exact circumstances you tested, but it tells us next to nothing about how useful it might be during production. If you want, you can do a quick skit using the mic in a realistic shooting scenario (f.ex. a short), and that would tell you much more about how useful you might find this mic in actual work. Of course, if you are just looking to use it under the exact conditions you tested here, then this is all you need to know.
 
As I said, I only verified that the mic's worked*. I also checked that the capsules threaded in smoothly as many have report problems with that on cheap microphones. I will try to get around to doing a real sound check in the next few days, and post them somewhere people can take a listen.

*The batteries I had bought for the Zoom F4 worked fine, until I tried to recharge them. One would not take a charge. The replacements have been topped off before I put them into the recorder. Since that problem just showed up last night, I was real motivated to make sure the mic's worked when they arrived in the mail today.
 
No prob, graywolf, appreciate all you're doin'. I've been burned by cheap mics before, so I'm careful, that's all - stuff can sound good in highly controlled situations, and then fall apart in a real production environment. Anyhow, lookin' forward to your tests.
 
Graywolf, do you know the diameter of your new mics? All of my mics right now are 19mm and am considering picking up these mics for a backup situation. But only if they are 19mm!

Thanks.
 
Bassman2003 said:
Graywolf, do you know the diameter of your new mics? All of my mics right now are 19mm and am considering picking up these mics for a backup situation. But only if they are 19mm!

Thanks.
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They are a smidgeon over 20mm according to my calipers.
 
Well, finally, a short test of the LyxPro w Super Cardioid Capsule.


I think it is OK. More than OK for the price of $80 a pair.
 
Nice, graywolf. It would also be interesting - but only if you have the time and inclination - if you ran a test where you compared it to a mic most of us are familiar with, like even a shotgun that's often used indoors A875r, or some other mic that we're familiar with, obviously depending on what you have available to you!

Thanks for the test so far! The LyxPro sounds respectable.
 
OldCorpse said:
Thanks for the test so far! The LyxPro sounds respectable.
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In my world cheap mic's are the norm. The only thing I have that is professional level is the AT4073A. The next thing down I have is a MXL 2003A, only a $200 mic, but a respectable U87 clone. Then the ATM10A omni's. Everything else I have is in the under $100 range.

I would say that with the cardiod capsule the 2DPC is comparible to the MXL 603S, which I do have. So $40 mic = $100 mic.

What would be interesting would be a comparison with that Russian microphone that had the cult following. After all, spec-wise they are pretty simular.

Somehow the clip where I tried to simulate handing noise went missing. I rubbed the boom, and grabbed it and shook it very gently. I did see just a flicker at the bottom of the meter range on the F4. Ah, that is why, I did that on the recorder instead of the camera. Sorry about that.

However, I think what your don't get with this cheap mic is probably ruggedness.
 
I picked up a pair of the Lyxpro. I have a matched pair of the the Russian Octava MK-012. I'll try to do a comparison tomorrow, including handling noise.
 
Fantastic, Paul F. I also have the Octava MK-012, so I'll be very curious as to how it compares. Spoiler alert: I know a ton of people who are sound pros really like the Octava, but I personally am not a fan. I'm curious to see/hear what you come up with!
 
Unfortunately all Oktava 012 mics are not created equal.. Oktava's quality control (of lack thereof). Most pros that have them. have been hand-picked. Probably the same with the cheap Chinese made mics. However I'd interested in the comparison of handling & wind noise. In my experience with seminar recording, many hotels had cheap china made (I assume) SM58 copies from Samson and others. The capsule element was hard mounted to the case so handling noise was horrendous. Someone tapping a finger one the podium sounded like Godzilla walking.
 
I didn't get to the comparison today. While a physical look without taking the units apart doesn't tell much, the Lyxpro looks and feels just as solid as the Octava. Hopefully, I'll have more tomorrow.
 
Gee, a 24bit 48K broadcast .wav file is big!

Stereo recorded on the Zoom F4. One minute, 21 seconds and it is 23mb. It is real slow loading. I put it up on my blog intending to show the real results with the LyxPro's and the F4. But I don't think I can afford the bandwidth, so am going to remove it. Maybe convert it to an MP3 and repost it in the next day or so, but it won't be the same. Sigh!
 
Well, for dial up yes... ;~)

48/24 is about 1 gig per hour ( a little more actually but close). I'm pretty regularly sending/ receiving 2- 6 gigs of files. Some where north of 8 and it starts getting easier to send a pen drive.
 
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