MXL 550/551R Microphone Ensemble with 550 Large Diaphragm and 551R Instrument Microphone - Red

There is nothing not to like here. Leave it to MXL to give you the most cost effective mic set on the planet. I've had a MXL -1006 since 1998 and it is still going strong and I purchased it for around 99.00 at the time.This set sounds particularly warm. I've used both mics for an acoustic recording. Small at the 12th fret and the large diaphragm off about a foot away and slightly pointed away from she sound hole (Behind). Results were great. No issues, no noise or him that I could hear when injecting Phantom power onto it. You can without question make professional recordings with this mic set, and whatever your heart or creative thoughts lead you. The Case, the polishing cloth are fantastic extras.

I'm a singer/songwriter "Spot of Blue" and recently purchased this condenser mike combo to work with my mbox 2 and pro tools at my home studio. I got a great deal through a dealer on Amazon vs. some other top music supply sites about half the cost! I use an ART tube pre-amp and get some great warm sound with this cardioid patterned mike. Sure you can always spend thousands more but, I find it gets the job done for song ideas and works great on mixes for vocals. The instrument mike is a bonus the way I see it and has proven to have a more than substantial characteristics for some recording acoustical guitar. This is a great combo for any mike locker at a super price. It doesn't come with a shock mount and I picked up a nice Nady universal that works great. All in all a well made product for the money.

I've only had these mics for less than a week but I must say, I love this set!! Great sound through recording. Great feel. Love everything about these mics. It does come in a nice case with paperwork and a couple cheap mic clips. I bought a universal shock mount instead of the included clip for the 550 while the 551 I do use the clip that was included. Great purchase ESPECIALLY for the money spent.

I haven't put these mics through any hardcore professional use but with a +48 volt phantom power tube preamp the 550 sounds great with my vocals. I haven't found a steady use for the 551 yet but sometimes I use it to record acoustic guitar riffs that I know I'll forget later if I don't document them.The red is eye catching and look vibrant. The chrome is also awesome but it's hidden beneath a windscreen so I don't really get to see it all that often.I would use the 550 over the MXL 990 as my main mic but the 550 didn't come with a suspension mount for using on my desk mounted mic stand to podcast with. If I can find said mount I would mostly like swap them out for one another and use the 550.

Okay so this isn't your Neumann U87. But it also doesn't cost three grand. I needed a decent mic to record music and do voice overs. This works. I've used the small capacitor mic to record my music and musicians for a documentary I did. I've used the large capacitor mic for voice overs and narrations for news stories that I have done. It works, plain and simple.Usually in post, I'll add a little bit on the bottom to warm it up, but not much. I find it pretty quite too as long as I am paying attention to the room tone and noise floor.If you don't have a lot of money and want something under $100 bucks, this is a good bet.Also note, that if you are doing podcasting, you probably should not get this set. It's XLR so you will need to have a mixer with phantom power to use these babies. For the same price you could get an USB mic without having to fork out the extra cash for the mixer.I've also used these while recording sound on location with my Zoom h4n and it works great for that too.

i got this set because my mic was broken and i have done reaserches and heard a lot of good things abut mxl, i know this is a very very very cheap beginers set but its realy good if you like playing with the EQ's the thing i like about these MXL mics is that the frequencys are almoast flat.they both come in a nice case with instruction manula telling you how to place the mics for vocals and guitars wich is good also one thing i would change is the mount that comes for the 550 because if it vibrates it will give you bad results better get a spider shock mount and thats all.i got this to test MXL products and i am happy i did the 551 is great on the guitar i cant say anything bad about it the 550 is good but it would be better with a pream and some EQinggood buy for beginers who just wanto record guitars and vocals...

You can't go wrong with these mics. I've loved them for about 2 years. I'm finally upgrading. If you are new to the game and want to capture good quality sound for recording voice overs, communication, or music production get this! They are solid and I've taken them all over the world. It's obviously not top notch recording quality, but everything else is 5 stars.Edit: I actually still use the mics after 4 years, and though I have some other Sure mics, I still highly recommend these as your first mics. I also highly recommend them to have some extra decent mics laying around.

Microphones arrived when promised and function as expected. The 550 is great for vocals and the 551 is a good instrument microphone. Keep in mind that these are not AKG, Telefunken, or Neumann but they work well. Also, a power supply is needed for these microphones to function properly. I would purchase again and recommend to anyone needing decent condenser microphones at a budget friendly price.