the t.bone EM 9600

I purchased this microphone several years ago and still pull it out now and again for quick jobs where I'm not too bothered about the self noise the microphone produces.

It's a rather light mic as it's housing is made from aluminium which is great if you're attaching it to a cheap stand or mounting it on a camera (and don't want too much weight). For such a light microphone I always thought it would be easy to break but it's been dropped or has fallen with a stand a few times and still works without any noticeable difference. I personally usually a lot of my microphones for foley work. I usually grab this at times where there's potential for the mic to get damaged.

You can provide phantom power through batteries. This is great if you wanted to capture audio on something like a DSLR using a XLR to 3.5mm jack cable. I have two of these microphones. One of them I lent to a friend who used it for this exact purpose. He left the batteries he used within the microphone. By the time I had it back (probably about a week), everything inside the casing was covered in rust and the batteries themselves were leaking. I'm not sure if it was the batteries or the microphone at fault. Either way, the mic itself still works when providing phantom power through an XLR cable but I haven't tested either of them with batteries since.

If you're just getting into using mics and want this to record voice, certain types of instruments (I specifically thinking of a guitar from experience) or something like foley then this mic might not be bad to have.

This rating is factoring in the price point.

I use this for field recordings (it has a shotgun switch to change polar pattern) and as a vocal mic. Its not terrible for general desktop use for calls either

outdoors, even with its wind shield it is still going to pick up wind, but some processing (eq etc) fixes that, as it can be battery operated its decently portable. It doesn't appear to eat through batteries when portable.

I pair it with the Millenium DS100 for my desktop "studio", perfectly suitable for this.

build quality is fine, wouldn't want to drop it though, I do not expect it would survive.

Other reviews mention noise, I haven't experienced this (its normally connected to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen)

As previously mentioned, its good for its price, I don't think you'd be going wrong if this is what you can afford and its certainly good enough for the kind of vocals I record (which are going to be heavily processed anyway)

I needed a relatively cheap mic quickly for a project I was working on, one where I would not be to upset if it went for a swim. I was surprised at the quality of this mic especially at the very reasonable price.
It actually sounded great, in fact better than some of my more expensive mics, I now find myself using it more & more often & it has become one of my trusted pieces of kit that always has a place in whatever bag I take out. I highly recommend this mic for both beginners & more experienced sound recordists, especially when a good but possibly sacrificial microphone is needed.

I've used one of these for two years to pick up sounds from a cricket pitch 60+ metres away. The mic is covered by a Røde WS6, which has kept it dry through all different kinds of rain thrown at it.

So, my needs are simple and lo-fi; to get the soundscape of the cricket pitch to a live stream.

Pros:
- Excellent pick-up for the price (heavily processed to coax out the relevant parts)
- Build quality is pretty good; the screw holding the business parts gave up only after two years of manhandling by people not accustomed to XLR cables.

Cons:
- The included mounting accessories are pretty useless. Consider getting proper ones at the same time with the mic.
- The off-wide-tele–switch slides easily to off during windshield installation. Nothing a bit of Gaffa won't fix, though.
- While the pick-up is good, the sound does reveal that the mic is not quite a high-end shotgun. Yes, you usually get what you pay for, but IMO the quality surpasses the expectations based on the price in this one.