A Great Microphone!

I had great service from an Audio Technica 2035 microphone. It might not rank up there with Neumann, but it worked well with my voice. But, I thought a "move up" might be warranted.

I tried the Rode NT1A, but for some reason, even though it's fairly highly regarded, I just seemed to have problems getting it to work right. No idea why. But, as many VO folks will tell you - "what's good for some people might not be right for you".

I had read stellar reviews about the CAD Equitek E100S . Even though it's been out for a few years, it's just starting to get "discovered" in my industry. The U.S.A. made mic got some great ink at recent conventions and in blogs. One top new demo company even now includes it in their mic "stable".

Intrigued, I searched online to see what it cost. Most places sell it for about $500. A few sites had it listed for about $100 less. However, in calling around, it looks like it's backordered at a lot of places. One quoted a CAD email that set the backorder at about 30 days. Another site had adjusted their page from 2 weeks to 30 days within an hour that I had looked.  Obviously the recent spike in publicity has the folks at CAD happy.

I lucked into getting my hands on one for far below even the lowest price I saw on the internet. Gotta love distress sales! (I swore to secrecy..and, no, they have no more). It arrived in it's wooden case (yes, a beautiful wood case). I couldn't wait to plug it in and give it a whirl.

In a word, it's fantastic. A very quiet mic, I had very little background noise. I have a somewhat deep voice but it didn't over-push it as the Rode does. And it also did a great job capturing the highs, an issue I had with the other two mics. So, in my final mixdown, there wasn't much EQing required. Granted, not a real technical review...it just made my voice sound great with little software "help".

The CAD Equitek E100S is built with a low profile shock mount. It has adjustments for padding and roll off but I haven't had to use either of them. And it comes with a two warranty.

If you have the opportunity to test one, do it. Granted, not every mic is perfect for every voice, but you definitely should give it a shot.