the t.bone EM 800

I have to admit, even after reading all the positive reviews I've been pleasantly surprised by this little chap. It comes in a hard plastic case, lined with foam. The plastic feels a little on the cheap side, but should be fine so long as you don't go chucking the case about like a lunatic.

Vocals/speech come through in their entirety, clear and bright. This would work fine for podcasting/commentary's etc, and you get a pretty decent sense of the room you're recording in too, meaning it could do a decent job with a couple of people on one mic. It's also great for recording guitars/instruments as a room mic, where a sense of the space can really make the difference on a recording. I've not tried it for close micing in this situation yet, but I have high hopes.

If you're after a small diaphragm condenser, you can do a lot worse for a lot more cash!

I bought this to overhead a drum kit for live sound use when funds were short and didn't expect much. The feeble box reinforced these fears, however, 4 years later not replaced it. Tried all sorts of other more expensive (£150 ish) mics in it's place and I can only match it, not better it. It has an nice ambient open sound which works really well on a drum overhead, the only down side is that it the GBF is a bit on the low side due to it's lack of directivity. Definitely not for the rock band world but great in our live but quiet environment. Close miked kick, single on the snare/hi-hat, one of these as an overhead for toms and cymbals... sorted. :)

I'm a poor graduate student who needed a SDC at a good price. I had a pair of C03 from Samson but they were way too noisy, and the Audix and Audio-Technica SDCs people recommended were way outside of my budget.

Then I found the EM 800.

The EM 800 looks good and sounds amazing. With low noise, high sensitivity and a tight polar pattern, it's a perfect fit for booming indoor dialogue shots.

Plus it's cheap as hell, outperforming mics 10x its price.

I will be recommending this mic to anyone considering another SDC. The EM 800 should be the first and only option for someone serious about recording.

I have had a set of 4 T-bone EM 800 condenser microphones and consider them an excellent choice.

They are rugged and have performed well for 4 years.

While they are designed as instrument mics after reading somewhere ‘give a condenser microphone a try for vocals’ I chose the EM800 as a cost effective alternative to the more costly cardioid microphones.

This microphone is excellent for speech giving good coverage and handheld is low in handling noise which was essential.

I would recommend the EM 800 for its robustness and good quality speech reproduction.