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Old 12-16-2003, 01:32 PM
b mcgibney b mcgibney is offline
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Default any opinions on APEX 460 condensor microphone

Has anybody used/tried out these mics. They are quite cheap for all the features they have, and according to my local store lots of studios are buying lots of these mics, in fact the local Long and McQuade said they sold 40 in two weeks.

Brian
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Old 12-16-2003, 02:35 PM
Jayman#9 Jayman#9 is offline
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Default Re: any opinions on APEX 460 condensor microphone

I've tried it. My buddy bought one. In fact, I AB'd it to my Neumann TLM103. It is a good mic! It has tons of bottom end. very similar to the Neumann!!! I found that it had a noticable, slightly sharp presence lift. Not always a bad thing. It's more on the lines of the AKG414. Again... not a bad thing. It would be a good mic for overheads, a "flat" sounding vocalist or any other source that could use a bit of a top end lift. The 9 pollar patterns are a major bonus. My Neumann dosn't even have more than 1!!! Though I use cardioid 95% of the time. I'm not sure how much the tube has to do with the overall sound of the mic. That is something I'm investigating. I only had a few hours with the mic. I didn't have a chance to try it on a strong vox to hear any tube charcteristics. Just because it has a tube dosn't mean it's a true tube mic. My guess is that it is true. It sounds quite good. BTW, when I took it apart, I noticed that they use a 12AX7. It had no brand or model # that I could find. I'm guessing it's a chinese tube. I'm curious to hear the difference if I were to replace the tube with, my favorite, a Sovtek 12AX7 LPS!

I set up the Neumann and the 460 side by side and recorded an acousic guitar. Right away I prefered the 460 over the TLM103 (5 times the price ). I found no need to add any eq to 460 siganl. The tlm103, on the other hand, needed a slight top end boost to give the guitar some shine. Though I'm sure if I was tracking acoustic to a session in progress, the roles could be reversed. Acoustic guitars always sound better with a bit of extra high end when played on thier own . Overall this mic is will worth the purchase for recording engineers at any level!!!!! No kidding. Hey, a good mics a good mic! I'm going in the studio next week to work on a new band, so I'm going to try a AB test with a real AKG C12!! (since the APEX460, by chance, just happens to look almost identical to a C12 ).
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Old 12-17-2003, 07:07 PM
b mcgibney b mcgibney is offline
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Default Re: any opinions on APEX 460 condensor microphone

Hey Jayman#9,

Thanx for the enthuiastic report. I think thse mics must be fairly new as there does not seem to be a lot of reviews out there. The review on its predessor the 420 are pretty good though.

I'm thinking of buying two so as to have a stero pair Two tube mics for 500 bux Canadian seems unbelievable. I just hope they still have stock!

Let me know how your further testing works out----thanx again

Anybody else?

But the way i also have lot of 12ax7a's including some old tung-sols and philips JAN (joint army navy) tubes to try out. Cuirous to know what diff it makes. One of the things that makes me a little suspicious is that these tubes were designed to run with fairly high plate voltages ie around300 volts and I don't thing modern tube circuits always run that high. Of course 300 volts is nothing compared to the old 7027a output tubes in the old Ampegs V4 which if memory servrs me ran around 625 volts on the plates---That wil give you a jingle!!!

Brian
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Old 12-22-2003, 07:32 PM
b mcgibney b mcgibney is offline
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Default Re: any opinions on APEX 460 condensor microphone

Well somehow I found myself donw at the local music store. Gear lust got the better of me and I picked not one but 2 APEX 460- the last two in the store . These mics are made by APEX-perhaps made in't the right word - they are distributed by APEX which is a wholly owned subsiudary of Yorkville /Long and MCQuade Music -the only national music store in Canada. After a couple of hours here are my observations.

1 Big and heavy-real heavy. I'm guessing 2.5 pounds plus. Thes seperate power supplies aint light either. No wall wart here, three pin IEC cords with a proprietary 7 pin 25 foot cord that runs to the mic-plug your xlr to the power supply.

2. For the dollar the build qulity seems decent. The spider seems a bit cheap but it works ok.

3 Dead silent it ain't although even in the first hour the noise floor came down as the mic warmed up and burned in--makes a great hand warmer in cold studios

4. Sat the two mics up about 16 inches away from my acoustic guitar. Ran throught the 9 (count them) variations of omni,uni, and figure eight. with variations in between.. Even though I have not sung into it yet i just like the sound of my spoken voice . FWIW the four mics I have been using are C-1000s, C-2000b (which despite the fact that nobody else seem to like it it do) a old sm 87 and a AKG d330..

5 Obviously I have not tested these mics fully but am pretty impressed. Big ,full, smooth with nice top end that seems bright but not too harsh.

6. The price kills. 250 Can = stereo tube mic/multi pattern for less than 575 for the pair -taxes in

7. My one worry is the reliabaility /repairability of these chinese made mics. We will see


Brian
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