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I was wondering what the best cheap tube mic might be. Entry level. I have some real cheesy mics (e.g., ones that came free with a stand as part of a package, and an ancient Shure Prologue) and am now ready to move to the next level. In between somewheres, I fell in love with tubed equipment, so would like to get a tube mic. Seems the cheapest are around US$300 (see here: http://www.zzounds.com/love.music?p=p.ALEAM61&z=1326948431274) -- is this a good deal? Just in case you can't see the link, it's the GT Electronics AM61 Tube Cardioid Studio Condenser Microphone for US$300 -- discounted from a purported US$1200 retail.
Follow Ups:
I agree with Roland (even if I don't know one one-thousandth of what he does). You won't be getting a good tube mic for that price. There are some decent condenser mics in that price range though...they'll certainly be a huge improvement over the mics you have. We own an Oktava MK219, a Rode NT-1, an ADK, and two Oktava MK012 capsule condensers. They're all SS and sound pretty good for what they cost (all were $150-$200 each), but they all have their own sound (and that means their own advantages and disadvantages, so try them before buying if you can). All were a very nice improvement over the Sure SM57 and SM58s...especially on vocals and acoustic instruments. I prefer the Oktava and ADK to the Rode for vocals, but that's just me. I'd love to get some nice mics one day, but there's probably no point until we get some better preamps. The above mics are more than fine for the preamps that are built into our digital Spirit board. If you're dying for something with a tube, there are many cheap tube preamps. We have a Prosonic Blue Tube. It cost about $150. It's not the quietest preamp in the world, but it's not bad (it's comparable to the rest of our equipment). You can use any mic with it, so it offers more flexibility than a single tube mic. It's also handy for going direct on occasion. That and one of the above mics should still be in the $300 range.
Look here:
http://homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?s=f4e7d651364de61f927bc5c23365e6f6&forumid=27More opinions than you can shake a cable at.
Buy it. Other cheap tube mics are Marshall Electronics, Studio Projects and SE electronics. I don't know how good the quality control is for these cheaper mics, but I would expect the GT to be better. A friend has tried the Marshall Electronics and likes it.
At your budget range, forget about looking for a "tube" mic and just buy the best mic you can afford. A lot of garbage is talked about tube gear these days. The classic tube sound that everybody talks about was the exclusive domain of about 7 mic's, all that if purchased secondhand today are $6,000 +. They all had 1 of two particular tubes in them, (AC701 was one of them, forgot the model number of the other). "Modern" tube mics are almost all hybrids, which in itself defeats the object of having a tube mic. Most of what people describe as valve sound, is probably more accurately described as class A sound.regards
Roland
Personally, I find the SE5000 @ $300 from Bayview Pro Audio is quite decent and is a genuine (not hybrid) large diaphram tube condenser mic. True, I haven't used to to record everything out there, but it does a very realistic job on harpsichord, clavichord and piano. I would replace the supplied tubes with Mullard or Telefunkens.
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