big sale…
Musiciand Fiend is selling the MXL 4000 with one of their little 603 pencil condensors for 200 USA dollars. Here:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product…=270624
One suspects that the “list” price of 1,200 USA dollars is a bit of hyperbole…
Anyway, anyone have this?
I have the MXL 990 and the 993 models - solid mikes nothing better for the price.
I have the 990 - mine sounds really harsh, for some reason. My impression is that the 4000 was intended to be a slightly higher quality mic. But there is no info on the MXL website and no reviews of it anywhere I can find. If it’s really a 500 dollar mic for 200, well…
MXL brand is “exclusive” to Musicians Fiend/Guitar Satan. Which is to say they’re Chineese made generic mics with an MXL logo. A same or similar model may-or-may-not be available from another source as a different brand/model. The “list price” is definitely greatly inflated. It is not a $500 mic for $200. (I worked for Guitar Satan for several years)
Quote: (Captain Damage @ Dec. 27 2007, 5:23 PM)
MXL brand is "exclusive" to Musicians Fiend/Guitar Satan. Which is to say they're Chineese made generic mics with an MXL logo. A same or similar model may-or-may-not be available from another source as a different brand/model. The "list price" is definitely greatly inflated. It is not a $500 mic for $200. (I worked for Guitar Satan for several years)
Are the Behringers fakes over there at Musicians/Satan?
keep shinin'
jerm
Hey tom weren’t you taling about TUBES in another thread?
Did you see this “MXL” knock off?
MXL 9000 Tube Condenser Microphone
Same price…
keep shinin’
jerm
Yup - I have a Rode NTK, a glorious tube microphone.
Dunno why I’m even looking at the MXL 4000…
Edit: BTW, Sun Recording Services was chock full of the NTK mics when I last visited a year or so back…
Quote:
Are the Behringers fakes over there at Musicians/Satan?
Long-time members here have heard/read me go off on this before. Behri isn't "fake" so much as just junk. I've seen every single unit of some items returned as defective; and a rediculous percentage of returns across all of their lines; I've seen bass amps (yeah, more than one) literally blow up the second they're turned on. There's a reason Behri is so much cheaper than the "good stuff."
Quote: (Captain Damage @ Dec. 28 2007, 4:26 AM)
Quote:
Are the Behringers fakes over there at Musicians/Satan?
Long-time members here have heard/read me go off on this before. Behri isn't "fake" so much as just junk. I've seen every single unit of some items returned as defective; and a rediculous percentage of returns across all of their lines; I've seen bass amps (yeah, more than one) literally blow up the second they're turned on. There's a reason Behri is so much cheaper than the "good stuff."
I had a Beringer mixer I used for two years and never had a problem with it.
Of course I never unplugged the power supply...and I kept it in a plastic bag to keep the dust out.
Basically I never moved it and rarely changed the nobs on it since i used it primarily for two channel function vocals/guitars and both setting remained constant.
I never had any hum or hiss a very clean signal, but again as I said I didn't use it that much....as in actually moving it or turning the nobs....
I saw a Behringer firewire breakout box on that site, I guess your not recommending that as an upgrade?
keep shinin'
jerm
Quote:
MXL brand is "exclusive" to Musicians Fiend/Guitar Satan.
I'm pretty sure you are mistaken on that. MXL is sold by many retailers including Music123 and just about every other internet dealer out there. You can also buy MXL at brick and morter dealers in the town where I live besides Guitar Center.
MXL is not a house brand to Guitar Center and MF. They were one of the first companies to design mics and have them made in China and when they introduced the 2001 LDC they created quite a buzz.
I have several MXL mics and they have all sound very good and have performed flawlessly. The latest mic I bought was an MXL 3000 and it sounds great. I think the 4000 is a multi pattern design of the 3000. If that's the case I can recommend the 4000 without reservation.
They may have gone more widespread. I left GC 3 years ago. I never meant to imply that they were bad mics because they were from GC, simply that the “list price” was greatly inflated.
I’m curious, but too lazy to actually research, do you see the same models available at competing outlets? Another GC trick was to inflate the list price of an exclusive model from a national brand, just to make the customer feel like he/she’s getting a much better deal than they actually are. When I was there most $200 acoustic guitars has list prices of about $300. One $200 Takamine model had a list of over $400. When I contacted the buyer at HQ about this, thinking it must have been a typo, his response was “It’s not a typo, it’s an exclusive model we can set the list price wherever we want.” I assume this is a pretty common practice.
My point is that list price is not a reliable gauge of value.