jirbling rake wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 12:42 am SUNN Alpha 6 PA and two Model 8 speakers for $600

https://worcester.craigslist.org/msg/d/ ... 59571.html

Seems interesting, or just a waste?

Way overpriced and not particularly useful.

Those Alpha mixers are only good for salvaging the knobs and selling them to Beta owners with missing ones.

jirbling rake wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 12:42 am SUNN Alpha 6 PA and two Model 8 speakers for $600

https://worcester.craigslist.org/msg/d/ ... 59571.html

Seems interesting, or just a waste?

Pretend it says Peavey or Kasino on it. It's not going to have any cool Concert or Beta preamp stuff, since it's a PA, and for $600 you should be able to get one of those instead. FWIW those used to be $200, and that was a fair price. 40 year old stuff is going to be in need of repair, too. Sunn at least seems to be easier to get parts for, unlike Yamaha.

Neumann U89

I keep wanting to sell a bunch of cheaper stuff and put some money into one really nice microphone I can use on all sorts of stuff. I’ve landed on this one as its Mark Hollis approved and its one of the few older ones that hasn’t gone completely out of reach.

A lot of what you're paying for is the Neumann name, which is actually a good way to ensure a fairly high resale value down the road.

However, I'd be more inclined to buy something like a used Bock or Soundelux or Peluso or some other established (i.e. been around for a while) boutique mic manufacturer. You're likely getting a higher-quality product than the mass-produced Neumann for about the same money.

I've never used a U89 so take this with a huge grain of salt. From what I've read the U89 tends to be a flat, utilitarian mic. Not the rich vibe of the old classics (U47, U67, U87i) nor the harshness of some of their newer ai line mics. This makes it all around useful, but if it were me I'd get something along the lines of an AT4050 for that 'what you hear is what you get' kind of straight forward presentation, then look for something vibier in a newer boutique mic (Beesneez, Pearlman, Soyuz).

Many classical recordists would tell me I'm a fool because their U89 is such a pure representation of what they're recording. Hard to argue with that.

Thank you both, you raised good points and I have been following the other manufacturers you mentioned for those same reasons - glad to know they get a cosign here.

If I go with the Neumann it will 100% be a investment for the resale value. If I go with another manufacturer’s version of a U67, you can thank this diagram Phill Brown drew for the Beggar’s Banquet studio setup

If I was going to spend that kind of money (and it is always fun to shop with other people's money!) I might think about a pair of Heiserman T19 as all-around multi-pattern workhorse condensers that probably sound great on most things, and (like the neumanns) could easily be flipped for whatever you paid for them.

https://heisermanaudio.com/products/type-19

That would leave you with $1-2K to put into a single fancy-pants tube mic, which would get you pretty far into Bock/etc territory... heck, you could probably get another pair of C12 clones from advanced audio with that.

I'm also super interested in these newer Sony mics - the C100 and C80.

I’m glad you mentioned that. Just to backtrack, this started when I was very close to buying a 414 B ULS but never went through with it, as I was looking for more of a vintage color thing than a modern do everything mic. Then I started looking around, thought about resale value vs maintenance and started to wonder if one of the “cheaper” Neumanns might pay off more down the road as an investment.

I had read about the Heiserman Type 19 as an alternative to the 414 but with a nice 47 capaule and was already reaching out to Vintage King to see about their wait list, since they’ve been hard to get since they’ve come out.

Anyways, I just got the push I need to put my deposit down on one and should have it next month. I have been burned after buying some used condenser mics that failed after a reasonable return period, so I actually feel a little better buying something new. They aren’t sold in matched pairs, so I’m sure I’ll be fine just buying a second one to use with it if I need it later. The only comment I read on them regarding vocals is that the mic is that it was less bright than modern Lewitt and Austrian Audio equivalents, which is about what I need.

Won’t need to worry about another mic for a while, thanks all

Those look really nice.

It does say "orders of 2 or more mics are matched" on the page that mdc shared.