Lewitt LCT 040 MATCH stereo pair

Clean and honest sounding with a hint of air. I mostly use these for recording accoustic guitar in an ORTF configuration.

They compare very favourably to much higher priced mics, and I can think of nothing better until you start spending silly money.
Build quality is good, clips are solid, and the little slip case may come in handy for some. Mics are nice and discrete due to thier small size too.

Some may find these lacking some minor features such as pad button, but these can handle serious SPL's so it's not really needed. No changeable capsules is to be expected at this price, but again not essential. The cardoid pattern is by far the most useful for my needs.

These are no-nonsense, great souding mics that are perfectly matched for stereo recordings of full range instruments such as piano, guitar, choirs etc, and would probably make awesome overheads for drums too.

Would buy again. So good that I'm now looking into other Lewitt mics to add to the studio.

Problems appeared when trying to use these beautiful designed mics on the Zoom F6 field recorder. Hiss and whistle sounds appeared when turning the volume up, too bad too ignore. I tried to eliminate the problem by changing channels, cables and surroundings. Nothing helped. I contacted Lewitt, and they did send me a new pair of mics, which was really very nice of them. The new ones showed similar symptoms. I then read in a review that some old interfaces show problems with these mics due to their relatively high power consumption, and the old interfaces too weak phantom power supply. The Zoom f6 field recorder is a new model which works usually very well, but perhaps it has a similar problem? All my other 10 mics run perfectly on it. Finally I got the Lewitt LCT 040 mics running ok and without the hiss on a Behringer interface, but to be honest, their ordinary self-noise seems to be the highest of all cheap mics I own. This is not mentioned in most of those flattering reviews that made me buying them. No problem when recording a punk or metal concert, but quieter music? The positive: They have a clear and fresh sound, unexpected nice proximity effect but to my taste, a bit too hyped in the higher frequencies. The clamps and the stereo bar that followed the package are really nice and I will use and love them as if their where my own, but the mics are of no use for me. They do not work clean on my preferred equipment, the Zoom F6 recorder I am using the most.

These bad boys are a product of a noiseless perspective in recording sound, and they absolutely full-fill their job. Besides being light and small, their sound quality, in my opinion, is above all other microphones on this level (compared to the NT5s, the Oktava 012, etc). Although they are extremely sensitive, the noise you get with these is very low when you crank up your pre, and the top end feels like a shelf, even tho it is a little bell. They are bright, in the high end, flat in the mids, and sustain a great amount of bass, for a ridiculously low price. The only downside (which for me hasn't proved to be critical in the professional utility of the tool) is that you don't have any possibility to change the sensitivity (with gain pads) or a low cut like you have in the NT5, or the Oktavas. But if you really need it, I recomend checking out the LCT 140s which use the same capsule as these ones, and have some extra features that will certainly help. I am very happy with this product, and would recommend it to anyone, from beginner studio engineers, to top notch entities!

For the price these are absolutely fantastic value. They are a true matched pair, sound wonderfully detailed and not too harsh and they're really small.

The small diaphragm condenser mics are fixed to cardioid pattern, but I'm using them as drum overheads so that's what I want them for. There's no roll off switches or 10db pad, but that's not a deal breaker for me. They do one thing and they do it very well. I upgraded to these from a pair of Behringer C2s and the difference is striking. The highs are very sweet, the whole sound is airy and detailed. Space is a consideration for me as I have a low ceiling and the size of these meant I could get them as high as possible. They're light but don't feel cheap and they certainly don't sound cheap. Would recommend.