beyerdynamic MC 930 Stereo Set (2023)

Very very happy with these microphones. Had lots of (vintage) MK84's before. Sold them years ago to be able to buy other stuff. Always regretted it. Although I found them rather harsh (even the vintage ones...) I had nice results when recording acoustic guitars. (Often tempered some hight frequencies). All is a matter of taste of course. Personally I do not like the aggressive high freq's, which you hear so often in modern music. Bought the Beyerdynamic MC 930 's after reading lot's of reviews. Really really like them. More natural, less high and furthermore less expensive. If I had the choice between the MK84's and the MC-930, I would without a doubt buy the MC-930. Also bought the M201TG, which I also love very much. BD make nice microphones!
PRO: superb built quality, good value for money, great sound!
CONS: none so ever.

Beyerdynamic MC-930 Stereo Set provides a great pair of microphones for stereo recording of acoustic guitars (I believe there are a number of other possible applications, like overheads, choir recording, orchestra recording,... but I need them primarily for recording acoustic guitar in stereo).

Mics are extremely sturdy, really excellent build quality. They have two switches, one for -15dB pad and another for 250Hz low-cut filter. The later is quite uesful for stripping off the 'boomy' frequencies when recording guitars,... I connect both mics with low-cut filter to my Apogee Duet and through that I can get guitar tracks which need almost no post processing. The recorded sound is excellent,... well, probably there are other mics that to sharp ears may sound better, but the response provided by Beyerdynamic MC-930, at their cost is, IMHO, impossible to beat.

Mics are delivered and can be stored when not in use in a secure box, along with shock mounts and foam wind shileds. I believe Beyerdynamic should include into this box also a "Stereo Bar", something like K&M 23550, for easier setup for XY stereo recording,... - funnily, there is a room for such bar in the fom inside the box, it is only that there was no bar supplied,... well, I just ordered it for a couple of Euros and now I am all set,.... and yes, that bar fits nicely in the Beyerdynamic MC-930 stereo Set box.

I had a problem with XLR cable not fitting properly and crackling noise from the first pair, but the replacements have caused no issues so far.

The build quality is excellent and I can't imagine how you'd break them. The included shockmount system is excellent, really compact compared to a normal shockmount but still very effective. I would recommend getting a stereo bar as they work well in XY and ORTF configurations.

Soundwise, the mids are very full. It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes depending on your room and the instrument being recorded. They don't seem to suffer from proximity effect as much as other SDC's I've tried which is great for picking up a full kit sound with just overheads. I've found them to work best on stringed instruments as opposed to percussion, but I tend to prefer LDC's on drums for my taste.

Overall, great mic's which definitely have they're own unique voicing. I'd recommend trying out the competitors in this price range and deciding what you like best.

I bought these to use as a pair for recording acoustic guitars, but have found they work well as vocal mics as well. They have a superbly clear sound without the excessive brightness of the Neumann KM184s and the modern AKG mics, and they're also far cheaper than the Neumanns. I can't recommend them highly enough for acoustic guitar especially. Here are a couple of links to songs recorded on these (the acoustic guitar only, the voice was recorded on a Pearl CC22. These were recorded in a small room with awful acoustics using an SE reflection screen, and the quality of the mics really shines though even in that situation.


https://soundcloud.com/sugarfreesongs/flor

Beautifully made, the MC-950 feels solid and has switchable LFA and a pad which puts it in the territory for location recording to reduce handling and wind noise.
It sounds accurate and slightly warmer than the Sennheiser 8050 and seems less sensitive to handling noise, even with the LFA set to flat..
However, it does suffer from a high degree of self noise, more so than a microphone of this pedigree should. In a normal domestic room, this noise is very noticeable at voice levels.
Its possibly not an issue in an environment with high SPLs but would be with quieter solo instruments.
This is the second one I have tried. The first had such high self noise, I could barely hear a signal while speaking normally and there was no room atmosphere, just hiss.
I'm surprised that a professional microphone from a such an established and well-regarded company should fall short of the mark. A shame since, on paper it looks perfect.