E100SX Large-Diaphragm Supercardioid Condenser Microphone – Vintage Tone, Hi-Pass Filter, 10 dB Pad & Shock Mount

Bought this mic brand new for $28 shipped because I had money from Amex cashback and it was on sale. Sweet! Everything worked as advertised. No self noise like some had mentioned. All patterns worked as expected. The overall sound is somewhat dark like there is a slight de-esser or a high pass filter running, the highs are not overly squashed but definitely noticeable compared to other condenser mics. But that's what they mean by its vintage sound signature. I don't mind it. It does have a fuller warmer sound which works well with my voice. Very happy with this purchase. Also the shockmount on the unit I received uses rubber connectors, not suspension bands, so it feels more sturdy.

I bought this microphone just or one purpose: Tom miking.Prehistory:After having read raving critics about the CAD - mainly from US engineers at Gearslutz - I couldn't resist any longer and wantedto make my own picture.Since I'm located in Germany, having done a search for shopping resources over here quickly revealed: Nothing.No CAD M179 was available in Germany at that time, which seems to be strange because CAD produces in China.Anyway, I finally found it on Amazon.com in the U.S.Buying experience:Although I've always been a bit skeptical about customs, delays and whatever else can go wrong with oversea transports, I ordered the price reduced bundle of 3 units.To my greatest surprise, the package arrived quite fast (10 days, 2 of them in the customs), was safely packed and 100 % as described.Import tax was very low by the way, only 2.5% of the microphone price plus shipping (tax for Germany, other countries in the EU may vary).Packaging:The CAD comes in a very large, cube-like package, printed with the-more-the-better zillions of colors, mainly in purple, red and blue.One could say the carton design looks cheap, but as always, taste is a personal thing and in the end it's the content that counts, isn't it?Although not my piece of cake, I must admit that the microphone seems to be well protected by this giant package.Construction:The microphone is sturdy built, with a anodized metal surface while being surprisingly heavy.The capsule is placed safe inside the solid metal windscreen.Part of delivery is a ring clamp plus a professional shock mount - highly recommended to reduce vibrations when miking drums.The overall construction is very good, in my opinion even exceptional for the given price.The CAD M179 offers a pad switch, which is a must for drum miking or the capsule could tend to distort.Both, variable pattern wheel as well as the pad switch, are easy accessible in front of the mike.Overall impression: No bells and whistles, but a solid workhorse, built for pro's.Sound:The CAD offers a warm, natural sound, that perfectly fits for Toms, but also for clean Guitars and even background vocals.I personally wouldn't use it for Lead vocals, but what can you expect for the price.Of course, the CAD wasn't built to be a concurrence to Neumann and other high end brands. But it does its job extremely well.The main purpose for me was Tom-miking, so the following research is covering only my experience with Toms.Set to cardioid, surrounding sounds from back and side are successfully suppressed, quite important when dealing with bleeding HiHats or cymbals.The Toms immediately sounded really big, not to say huge, without messy crash sounds coming through.Although having used Sennheiser MKH-40 for Toms before (one costs 10 times the $$ of a M179 ...), the results were doubtless significantly better then ever!You can turn up the Tom tracks in your mix, really push them in breaks and the like, and at the same time your mix won't suffer of the typical cymbal bleeding as known from other microphones (like the MKH-40 or MD421).Amazing.In Short:Pros:* very good and sturdy crafted* exceptional good sounding results, specially with Toms* low priceCons:* heavy weight that demands for mic stands* typical microphone clamps will place the CAD more over the center of Toms, not at side, due to it's size.I can live with that, although your setup will be cluttered even more when using stands.Conclusion:I love this microphone! My dream of a perfect drum sound has become more true, day in and out.A clear recommendation: Buy it!

I've watched MANY YouTube reviews about this microphone and have yet to see anyone come away with a less than outstanding opinion of this microphone. I don't have any experience with the earlier models of the E100 series, but this one is fantastic. Everything on it just sounds IMPORTANT. I use it for voiceover and podcasting and have managed to sell two other folks on it already. I wish they would include the CAD-branded foam windscreen with it (come on CAD, it's not expensive and it would make folks happy), but other than that I have no complaints. I got this on a stupid deal here on Amazon, like $60 out the door, but even at $99 or $120 it would be worth it. You won't regret buying this microphone.

Mic sounds wonderful. However I have been struggling a slightbit with making it louder without adding to much gain. That may be a user error though.

This is a great sounding mic, and was my favorite of three I tried. I put it on a boom arm on my desk and almost never moved it, except to reposition.The shock mount is very nice, but it is proprietary and only works for these mics, and it has an attachment to mount it on gear, but the handle that holds that joint firm is made of really weak metals that stripped on my On August 2nd when I bought the mic on June 2nd. So I got 60 days before it became completely unable to hold the mic.So now I have a very nice mic sitting on my desk that I can't use, and I am outside the return period, and I can't easily upgrade the holder to a different once from Amazon because its specific to this mic so I'd have to order another original from the factory at high cost and high chance of failure again in 60 more days. I saw this same issue in a review on YouTube and hand waved it away and decided to get this mic anyone. This is your warning, don't make the same mistake.Don't buy this product.