£25 microphone from Argos...

AntonHunter

Spotted this deal in a thread on Gearspace

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4722504

Neat King Bee 2 microphone, designed by some of the team behind Blue Microphones I think. All the reviews and demos I found were raving about it when it came out at $170, so I couldn't resist paying £25 for it. Its really sturdy (and big!), sounds good so far, nice and quiet, definitely aimed at voice-over/streaming types. I've been busy since it arrived, but I intend to test it on guitar and saxophone in the next couple of weeks.

thecolourbox

Sounds like a good bargain

MartinB

Huh, interesting, I would never have thought of checking Argos for that sort of thing! Doing a quick Google, I can't seem to find a frequency response graph for it anywhere, which is a shame as I've often found that cheaper condenser mics have peaky stuff going on that bothers me with my acoustic guitar, cittern and other instruments. 

steamabacus

They seem a bit confused about what it actually is.

"...custom Class A discrete electronics, and precision, large diaphragm 34mm gold-sputtered centre-terminated true condenser microphone capsule"

but then later ...

"Dynamic microphone making it ideal for on-stage use"

Is it a condenser or a dynamic?

I'd be more likely to trust Studiospares/Gear4Music for a cheap mic.

thecolourbox

It's definitely a condenser 

Sporky

Definitely condenser. Reviews are favourable at full price, but it is apparently very heavy indeed. 

AntonHunter

Yep, definitely a condenser. I suspect they didn't sell brilliantly and they're blowing out the end of the range. 

MartinB said:

Huh, interesting, I would never have thought of checking Argos for that sort of thing! Doing a quick Google, I can't seem to find a frequency response graph for it anywhere, which is a shame as I've often found that cheaper condenser mics have peaky stuff going on that bothers me with my acoustic guitar, cittern and other instruments. 

It does sound a little bright so far to me on my voice, bit of a presence peak perhpas, but I've not delved much yet. 

flying_pie

I saw a review online with the frequency response. Looks like a small bump around 6K and another after 10k

Worth a punt for £25

roberty

Sporky said:

Definitely condenser. Reviews are favourable at full price, but it is apparently very heavy indeed. 

Represents outstanding value at just 1p per gram

drofluf

MartinB said:

Huh, interesting, I would never have thought of checking Argos for that sort of thing! Doing a quick Google, I can't seem to find a frequency response graph for it anywhere, which is a shame as I've often found that cheaper condenser mics have peaky stuff going on that bothers me with my acoustic guitar, cittern and other instruments. 

There’s one in the quick start guide here https://turtlebeach.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#U0000000Jga6/a/4U000001E95o/PCESwn2CnHWLzeYACX2SKKq6cbLeWu4dbAnn7g54QfI

roberty

drofluf said:

MartinB said:

Huh, interesting, I would never have thought of checking Argos for that sort of thing! Doing a quick Google, I can't seem to find a frequency response graph for it anywhere, which is a shame as I've often found that cheaper condenser mics have peaky stuff going on that bothers me with my acoustic guitar, cittern and other instruments. 

There’s one in the quick start guide here https://turtlebeach.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#U0000000Jga6/a/4U000001E95o/PCESwn2CnHWLzeYACX2SKKq6cbLeWu4dbAnn7g54QfI

flying_pie

Well I picked it up this morning. For some reason I expected the box to be heavy. The reviews say it's heavy. 

It's not. I mean obviously it's heavy for a microphone but my brain was expecting Mjölnir

Sporky

flying_pie said:

Well I picked it up this morning. For some reason I expected the box to be heavy. The reviews say it's heavy. 

It's not. I mean obviously it's heavy for a microphone but my brain was expecting Mjölnir

Ah, fair enough - Mjolnir is about 8 kilos.

https://www.schiit.com/products/mjolnir-3

thecolourbox

I'd assumed Mjolnir was a volcano in Iceland to be honest

Sporky

I've ordered one, on the basis that if it's no good as a microphone it'll be a decent hammer.

flying_pie

FFS Odin wept....

I was going to say Anatoly's mop instead but figured that might be too obscure a reference. Maybe I should have just done that

AntonHunter

That one guy on Gearspace had better be on comission. 3 of my mates have one now, plus me, plus you guys.

thecolourbox

flying_pie said:

FFS Odin wept....

I was going to say Anatoly's mop instead but figured that might be too obscure a reference. Maybe I should have just done that

Here comes the Norse god of thunder,
Riding on his favourite philly
"I'm Thor!" he cried, so I replied,
"You forgot your thaddle, thilly"

AntonHunter

This is the thread by the way, plenty of opinions, but this recent one about the pop filter is worth investigating:

Note on the pop filter: it doesn't do wonders but might work somewhat (a normal pop filter would still be far better). It changes the tone drastically, as can be heard on some YT reviews. It has a nasal/honky mid resonance, and rolls of the very top end quite a bit. That's physics, it does so because it creates a (lossy) cavity, and the double-honeycomb disc holding the dense fabric enforces turbulences causing upper-mid resonances. (Reminds me of the strange acceleration discs on some of the old Octava mics that were supposed to increase HF but at the cost of weirdness). Just leave the pop filter off and you're left with a great sounding mic.

flying_pie

thecolourbox said:

flying_pie said:

FFS Odin wept....

I was going to say Anatoly's mop instead but figured that might be too obscure a reference. Maybe I should have just done that

Here comes the Norse god of thunder,
Riding on his favourite philly
"I'm Thor!" he cried, so I replied,
"You forgot your thaddle, thilly"

I'll see your Norse mythology joke and raise you this

flying_pie

AntonHunter said:

This is the thread by the way, plenty of opinions, but this recent one about the pop filter is worth investigating:

Note on the pop filter: it doesn't do wonders but might work somewhat (a normal pop filter would still be far better). It changes the tone drastically, as can be heard on some YT reviews. It has a nasal/honky mid resonance, and rolls of the very top end quite a bit. That's physics, it does so because it creates a (lossy) cavity, and the double-honeycomb disc holding the dense fabric enforces turbulences causing upper-mid resonances. (Reminds me of the strange acceleration discs on some of the old Octava mics that were supposed to increase HF but at the cost of weirdness). Just leave the pop filter off and you're left with a great sounding mic.

Thanks. I'd seen some of those comments and planned to just use my usual pop filte

I'll give it a try and see what my currently choked from the cold singing voice sound like for a cover challenge guest vocal. Will be interesting to hear how sibilant it is with my Scottish accent given the high humps