Aston Microphones Spirit

I bough this because of the extremely positive reviews that bombarded the internet, after some years of using it here's my view.

It's a useful mic for high end, it captures it well and clear, though it can be harsh, thin and lifeless, which also makes it take saturation very badly, which is very important for me.
As drum overhead it's almost like an Earthworks, waaaay too much high-end and not the useable kind, while the snare and toms sound like toys.
For vocals it can do wonders with soft, breathy female pop voices, but for anything else you need to extremely de-ess and EQ it to be useable.
It's also extremely sensitive to certain frequencies and I've accidentally made it "crap out" while recording drums and even vocals.

To me it's a trend mic that will not stand the test of time, it's ok for the price but nothing like its hype, to me it was useable only in figure-8 because the proximity effect made the freq response a bit more natural but still treble-heavy and fragile.
I ended up selling it and got into full-range ribbon mics.

If you want 2020 pop or influencer-style sound it's ok.

This is a great sounding mic but it needs a shockmount.

pro
build quality is great
sounds great in a lot of sources ( guitar, cello, voice, m/s the 8 form recording side is awesome)

cons
It gets a lot of noise from the floor, for a good recording you will need a shockmount!
NO SHOCKMOUNT!
NO CASE!
BAD SHIPPING BOX!

So, this mic sounds ok but I am still mad about the shipping box (mine arrived crashed and wet, even the plastic arround the mic was opened because to ship this you need to put A PROTECTING CASE, RIGHT ASTON? the mic works (I dont know how and for how long) but, at this price point the shockmount and the flying case should be included. 3 stars.