Telefunken Mic Shootout (Part 1) 

amazing video guys, its taken me an hour to try and get every nugget of info from this and will definitely be listening again with fresh ears! Keep up the good work can't wait until nest week.

Great microphones, great studio in a great city and with a great artist is playing the guitar

Really enjoyed the body found in the Copperhead... its cardioid pattern is what I'm looking for as well in my case! This is a great sit down on such a wide selection.

I also liked the ELA M-251 on strummed-guitar, followed by the AR-51 and C12.

Finally!!!,Wew Hew!!!! i always hear about the differences in a mic, but i'm only able to own 1. THANK YOU SO MUCH for letting me hear the difference between different mics... Thank you so much Dave!!!! Thank You!!! Thank You!!!!!

I don't know why I tend to fall in love mostly with the sound of the most expensive microphones I hear, only!

When Chris started talking I though, uh on, I'm going to disagree with everything they say, but the Dave gave his opinion which mapped 1:1 with mine all the way through. Thanks for the shootout. PS. I was one of the guys who named the Copperhead in the naming competition, and all I got was a lousy t-shirt ;)

I own the AR51 and love it! It was reinforcing to hear the great comments here as well. I have found it useful in many applications, a sort of "Utility" mic in essence.

I also wholly agree with Dairniel that mic placement, even a couple of inches when you're that close to the source, makes a BIG difference.

These sound very similar to me. Slight differences in placement make them sound more similar I think. The 51 has a little bit fuller 125-200 I think and the 47 is very similar to the copperhead except in the midrange which is a little higher in the copperhead. Overall though they are similar in sensitivity and detail and the differences could primarily be reconciled through minimal EQ.

The prior comment is about the first mic set. In the second I like the C12 which has a sweeter high end making the AR51 sound a little flat. The 251 sounds excellent all the way around being robust and full and sweet. The 251 wins in my opinion with the C12 second.

I hate debating on mic with most videos. I like hearing the mics in person decisions. I went to a used equipment spot choose a 100 dollar mic over a 400 dollar mic. depends on the artist.

Id prefer the AR51, sounds more mix ready, and I just find the sound more comfortable and relaxing on the AR51.

I love the AR - 51, just like the Manley reference mics

sorry i saw that part. Great differences in the mics. I love the ak47 mkii, really nice character

for me in the start from 47 to the 3rd it seemed like it went from the first mic being very good in the lows and mids and pretty full in the highs, then for the second one i think the highs inproved maybe more so in the high mids with good lows still, then in the last one i reckon it had good lows but the mids cut out a lil with verryy good highs.

All microphone manufactures should have their product featured and compared like this

Cant tell a thing from RU-vid video. Download the session!!

hey Dave, in this test the AR51 still has the "OLD" capsule or newer TK51D installed from october 2012 ?

I cannt understand ak47 mk2 is better than a miktek cv4?

I have to say that over here the difference between the mics is quite large. I was kind of surprised when Dave says that it isn't.

Dave Pensado is a class act.

i dunno... for me its the AR51 all the way, but i think a lot of that has todo with the specific situation all the mics were in... it just seems to fit the situation the best (for me). i though the C12 sounded like ass in the low-mids, but so would the other mics in, say a room-mic for a rockdrumsound situation..

Thanks for the comparison! The guy plays good, but the guitar is not very well in tune (the guitar is either not well tuned, or, which is more likely, Takamine guys had also on this guitar severe problems to place the saddle in the perfect position, the same thing does apply to my Takamine which I cannot play without saddle compensation). Also, we have today modeling mics like Townsend Labs Sphere and others which can simulate these great german classic mics very very well.

What preamps complimented these mics?

That being said, if I were to ignore mic placement (which I realize we can't), on the strumming guitar, the ELAM 251 stands way above the other two. The C12 in this instance sounds spikey in the upper mids... accentuating the buzzing of the strings. The thinness might work in a dense mix of course. The AK51 sounds phasey in the mids... compared to the ELAM, it sounds like it was weirdly EQ'ed. The 251 sounds "natural" (I realize that I don't know what the instrument sounded originally).

I liked ak47 mk2 best of all. Every other mic sounded smeared and muffled like using some sort of transient compression.

I had never thought that Telefunken is still alive ! I thought it died in the late 70's...

It's hard to hear the difference between these mics on this video. There's some distortion on the video, not sure where it's coming from.

The copperhead has a good sound to it on guitar

Hi Anyone Know If the M16 Mk2 is equival to the u87 and the tam 170 ???

M16-A4 is a solid bang for your buck

are these made in china? "assemby in USA" the body of the microphone and the power supply are equal the chineses C12 tube styles like APHEX, AVANTONE, ALCTRON etc, by the way to test microphone quality you need to sing, vocals are critical in digital harmonic conversion when instruments are not.

If the capsules were not chinese origin this mics could be very good. Are ok in terms of circuit and construction. The sound on some models have sort of harshness on some frequencies typical to chinese origin capsules. Maybe a capsule upgrade could work. I also own a TF39 which is ok but not wow. Maybe the higher end models they have use a better capsule...

i like the punchiness of the AK-47

AK-47 sounds to me pretty nice..

ok- like if you are dead set on acquiring the 29, weather it is horrible for your voice or not, simply because its name is so fuckin badass 🐍

mic pre's used please???

What about a Rode K2? - just kidding.

Dave is missing his studio tan, clearly not in the lair like he used to be ;)

Hey your at Tommy's studio.

I think it's like AR51 and AK47 switched places

I love it when guitar players look like they're having a panic attack ;-D I like the shimmer of the C12 on guitar personally.

i swear the differences between all these mics are so small......... like i feel so dumb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Telefunken....tele..Fuuuuuunken, not Fanken.Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhgghhhhh!

C12 :)

to be honest there is not enough differences between those microphones at least the way it is presented in the video. Everything sounds almost the same. Just buy the cheaper if you like the sound. I have done and listen a lot tests with 251, c12 and u47 and I don't really understand why everything sounds the same in that demo. Maybe I need to use cheaper headphones to hear the difference. :D I'm gonna download the files... idunno

AK 47??? Come on, you know what it means ;)

just reading all that comments...this ..that...this...that....why you just dont shut up? As much as you all have different opinion, so doesnt matter even as a comment. No one know how much are good your ears and what is what you hear. On 10 microphones I intentionaly go and read thousand opinions. Anyone want tell me that each mic sound so different so we have thousand opinions? Go take walk.

Very disappointed, no real firearms within the video.