good vintage gear vs. new budget gear?

[thenetfilmmaker]

In my experience with lenses, I know great vintage lenses will always beat out a cheap low end one anyday
Same with lighting, I have lenses and one of my favorite lights were made in the 60's. I was wondering if the same applied to audio. The reason being I tripped up on a sennheiser me80, that was owned by a studio that is liquidating its gear. I know the me80 was a great mic, my worry is if I remember right, it had a low signal. So Im unsure how it would pair with a recorder like the marantz pmd661 or any of the low end recorders ie. Zoom or tascam. Am I barking up the wrong tree with looking at older mid to high range gear, vs going with something like the at875 or rode ntg1?

 

[Alcove Audio]

There's a lot more to purchasing vintage gear than "is it vintage?". First, just because it's old, doesn't mean that it is "vintage" in the meaning that its sound and characteristics are prized. Some German mics from the mid '30's to the '60's - Neumann, Geffel and Telefunken, for example - are highly sought after, as are some RCA, Shure and Ampex mics from the same era. Bidding can be positively stratospheric.

The ME-80 was a nice mic in it's day and still sounds just fine, but it requires an 8-pin connector, so would be difficult to adapt to current equipment. If it has already been modified having the "pedigree" of whomever did the mod is important; sometimes the adapting modification negates the very characteristics for which the mic is valued.

The ME-66, which is still in production, sounds much better when recorded to analog tape in the opinion of myself and others; the frequency characteristics were biased for the analog age. A nice mic, but recorded to digital it sounds a little "brittle" to my ears.

Some tubes for vintage tube amps, mic pres, compressors, etc. are now very rare, so replacements are very hard to come by and dreadfully expensive. Even if someone still makes them you can be sure that they will be extremely pricey.

As a keyboard player I really love vintage keyboards. But let's face it, they're usually large and/or heavy and quite often difficult to maintain. A Mellotron uses analog tape of a non-standard size; almost impossible to get these days - but it has that something special in its sound quality. Classic Moog synths sound warm and fat, but they drift out of tune, and, no matter how hard you try, you cannot 100% duplicate a sound when you need to. The list goes on.

So as you can see there are other things to consider besides the fact that it is a vintage piece of gear - it's compatibility with current gear, it's maintenance, portability and reliability are all things that need to be considered.

Now, there are lots of older pieces of gear - especially mics - that hold up well over the years. I have a Shure SM-58 that's closing in on 40 years old; and yes, I'm the original owner. I have an AKG-414 BUL/S that's almost 30 years old and still sounds wonderful. As long as they have been maintained properly there isn't any reason why a mic cannot last for decades.

So do LOTS and LOTS of research and ask LOTS and LOTS of questions when purchasing vintage and older gear. There are lots of very nice pieces to be had at decent prices, but there are also scam artists by the thousands. Do your homework! Caveat emptor!!!

 

[thenetfilmmaker]

Thanks again Alcove. I apperciate the no bs advice. I did some research, it has the k3u unit which is the battery / phantom that makes it a standard Xlr connection. Its also a black painted model which were produced in the early 90s. The person selling it comes highly recommended from a close colleague. The person also has the papers where it was serviced at a senheiser authorized repair shop. I haven't snatched it up yet. Im waiting til I can test it out.

 

[wheatgrinder]

Microphones are as fragile as lenses, but they dont show there cracks so easily if you know what I mean. A broken lens is pretty obvious, either the mechanics don't work or the glass is bad, you can at least get a sense that its "good" from just holding it and looking at it..

But a microphone can look EXCELLENT but could be totally blown! So there is more unseen risk with mics.. plus they tend to get abused and are always "hanging out there" in harms way!

 

[gpforet]

I own an ME-80/K3U that lives in a rycote blimp and is used often as my primary shotgun. Yes, it's output is low compared to sankens and the ME-66. Mine is black also and came in the original sennheiser box with german only data sheet. When used directly into a tascam DR-100, the levels were a bit low, and really forced you to get the mic close to the talent to get dialog levels of -15 or so. I quickly added a PSC Alphamix and later a DR-680. This is still my primary shotgun. It's highly directional, the off-axis is natural sounding but does require tight aiming (which to me is how a shotgun should work). In the hands of someone who's not paying attention to proper aiming (and monitoring carefully), it's not the mic of choice. In my opinion, I would have to spend another $1500 or more to get the same quality I'm getting out of my ME-80.

Soundwise, it's warm with no brittle top end like some of the chinese capsule mics. Of course, part of this affinity is based on having rolled close to 2000 takes with this mic alone so I have a pretty good feel for it's characteristics. I've yet to have an editor or director make negative comments about the timbre of this mic.

I paid $130 for the ME-80 and K3U on ebay about 4 years ago.

Thanks again Alcove. I apperciate the no bs advice. I did some research, it has the k3u unit which is the battery / phantom that makes it a standard Xlr connection. Its also a black painted model which were produced in the early 90s. The person selling it comes highly recommended from a close colleague. The person also has the papers where it was serviced at a senheiser authorized repair shop. I haven't snatched it up yet. Im waiting til I can test it out.

 

[InsuranceMike]

Another item to keep in mind as respects to vintage production equipment is insurance. Most Production equipment insurance policies are written on ‘Actual Cash Value’. That means it covers the replacement value of the equipment minus depreciation, which includes obsolescence (loss of usefulness as a result of outmoded design, construction, etc.) When obtaining your insurance request the coverage for your equipment to be included on a Replacement cost valuation.