Karaoke Forums

When I first started singing around 3 years ago I didn't really know anything about audio equipment and nothing about microphones. I had no idea that there were so many different kinds and types of microphones.

In the past year or so since I decided to sing professionally I started learning about audio equipment, but just recently started paying attention to microphones. I've read a lot here and other places on the internet about Shure, Sennheiser, AKG, Audix etc., but nothing compares to using different microphones.

I've used Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Gemini, Vocopro, Nady, Samson and some cheapo wireless mics and various wired mics when visiting various Karaoke shows. Recently I had the chance to try a Shure Beta58 wired and it was very good, much better IMO than the venerable SM58s I've used.

I used a Samson wireless a few nights ago that had the Q7 element and it was excellent, I was very surprised. After that I'm going to buy one for sure. That will become my most used mic. If I could afford a Shure Beta 87 wireless I doubt I would use any other microphone.

I got a big surprise Saturday afternoon. I was practicing some of my songs and decided to pull out a wired Nady SP-1 mic that I got for free when I bought a mic stand from Musician's Friend about a year ago. They had a package deal with a tripod boom stand, a mic cable and the Nady SP-1 for like $20 or $25. I have never really used the Nady thinking it was probably junk. I usually use a Sennheiser E816S which is a very good, entry level mic. I was shocked to discover that I really liked the sound of my voice with the Nady. That thing is like an $8 mic!

I'm extremely pleased with my Nady DKW Duo wireless mics. They were one of my first purchases and I got lucky, they could have been junk. They would be great for wireless drunk mics at $40 for the pair. I use them all the time and have had zero problems with them. They aren't the most sensitive mics, but for most people they are just fine.

Anyhow, your mileage and experience may be much different than mine.

You don't notice the handling noise on those things? If you don't, you are operating at a very low volume level.


It is -- I visit a show and if Nady is the only mic offered, I never come back.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I'll make sure that I have the Nadys front and center like garlic to ward off vampires, thanks for the warning. If you happen to walk in and see them just turn around and walk back out and never come back. People like you are poison. I wish I had never posted this discussion to share some of my experiences. Jerks like you ruin nice discussion boards with your snobby, know it all attitudes. You should have just read my post and moved on. I hope you will do so in the future.

Since you are mentioning Yamaha mixers and EV speakers, seriously I thought you might be interested in knowing that the Nady mic -- or even the 815s -- absolutely destroys your system. You spend all that money on great gear, and then front it with an SP1 or Nady wireless mics? Hasn't any pro come in and told you that is senseless in the extreme?

OK, I'll limit it to an occasional post that says, "remember you can't make a silk purse from a sows ear, you can only redefine silk purse".

The Nadys are terrible microphones, especially the SP1 which feels like tin. The wireless mics clip like gangbusters the moment you give them any level at all. If you position the mic perfectly and have no dynamic range in your voice, I bet they can sound good. I don't see how they could sound good otherwise. They do have the effect of dragging decent singers down closer to the level of poorer singers by destroying their confidence -- particularly if you drown it in lots of large-hall reverb. If that is what you are trying to accomplish, they are good for that.

Record a track with the Nady SP1 and then with an SM58 or an 835, both hand-held. Then upload to Singer's Showcase. If you are honest about it, I bet the people here can pick which is which every time.

Or just upload one with the Nady. Anything. If it sounds good, people will tell you it does. If it sounds bad, the people will still tell you it's awesome.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

We got some Nady wireless mics also, that came with something else. We weren't going to use them but were surprised that they actually sounded good so we offer them for people who want wireless. They can choose the wired Audio-Technica if they feel their singing talents warrant something better. The other karaoke hosts at our venue had a really nice $400 wireless mic and someone dropped it the second month and that was it so we don't feel too bad about sacrificing the Nadys. But you strike fear in my heart when you tell me that they ruin systems. Tell me, how so? We haven't had clipping in ours.

Sorry if this is a double post. The page expired, I refreshed, here we go again.

I use Shure Sennheiser and AKG all models no less than $400

In the odd event I am off and get to go out and sing. I would leave a place that was not using a pro grade wireless microphone. I hate wires that would also cause me to leave, I like to walk around the room when I sing.

I meant ruin the system's sound, sorry. The microphone is one of the most important, and arguably THE most important, piece of the signal chain, and putting a $8.00 mic in front of $2,000 worth of audio equipment just doesn't make sense.

I didn't intend to insinuate they would ruin the hardware. That is a natural thought when I mention clipping. But that *can* blow voice coils on speakers. One venue was always losing the tweeter on their Peaveys, I don't know why. But come to think of it they had cheap wireless mics (as well as good wired ones). Seriously, though, I doubt it would normally ruin hardware given even minimal mixing skill.

I am afraid I just don't trust the ear of people who say bad mics are good. If someone I knew said they sound great, or someone could show me how they sound great, I would certainly listen. If they were generally good, you would see at least some praise given them by known pros. But I have sang into those things a number of times, and the experience is uniformly awful. Tons of handling noise, uneven response, dead spots, clipping when the volume goes up. That is probably more lack of mixing skill, but it wasn't like the mic was so sensitive I had to hold it 8" away. That is when you *normally* drive a mic to levels that will clip without limiting or compression.

Pros tend to diss Behringer, but they do have to give then at least some respect as their gear is in the range of pro level. Pros completely dismiss Nady and any act of any consequence would stare wide-eyed and then probably break out laughing or stomp out cursing if you put Nady gear in front of them.

Bands have "no Behringer, no Alesis, no Samson" and even "no Mackie" clauses in their riders. They don't put "no Nady" because no one would ever presume that it would be offered.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Thanks for clarifying, now I can sleep.

So what does one do? Have a secret mic stash for the rare pro who graces the show and then sacrifice the cheapies to the mic droppers? We think wireless is more fun, ourselves, but good ones are too expensive to put into the hands of the happily inebriated. I know of one host who will offer up his good wireless if he thinks you will treat it well but otherwise you get the wired.

Odd, though--we had an ex-professional singer at our show last weekend and when she took the Nady she looked at it and handed it right back and said the battery was going dead. My boyfriend gave her a different mic and then checked the battery on the Nady and it was fine. Must have been an editorial comment. He will always offer the better wired mic to someone who is obviously a serious singer but most decline because they want to run around the room with the cheapie wireless.

Buy a single SM58 and use it for 15 years like Lonman has. Buy the $5.00 replacement ball that makes it look good as new. All for $99.00, and you can get them for $70.00 used which is just as good. They are simply indestructible. Buy a lifetime guarantee mic cord at Guitar Center for $30.00. Done, and it will last you. $40.00 a year amortized over three years, and I bet you can easily run through that many cheap mics a year. You simply can't destroy the SM58. Decide you don't like it or don't need it anymore? Stick it on Ebay and get $65-70 for it with no trouble. If you *can* buy one for $60 on Ebay, you can use it for a year and then put it back up there and you might get $70.

Most importantly, while still being economical you can be confident that you are putting your best foot forward. I guarantee you that good singers will be happy to see the mic compared to a Nady or other cheapo, and that more people will come back to your show. Just offer it to anyone by having it on a stand off to the side. The ones who want it will recognize the ball immediately and go for it. (The drunks always want the wireless so they can prance around and scream, anyway.)


I run wired not so much because I am afraid of the wireless but because I like the dynamic.I think letting drunks roam around the room with a wireless detracts from the show. I like the singers up where I know they can hear themselves and where they will face the crowd. And you can bet our crowd is rockin', too. In fact, in one place you would have trouble doing any dancing around the room because the dance floor is mostly packed with people dancing to karaoke songs. There simply is not room to do it, the place is so packed.

And the AKG WMS40, while not a really top mic, only costs $300 for two and is surprisingly durable. Haven't lost a one of three, though I confess we only run one night a week with the pair and most of our people aren't over the top drunk.


Fine. If someone wants to do that, more power to them. And if you always sing straight-out belting songs, the mic isn't as important. Personally, I want the mic that I don't have to think about. If I get an SM58, an E835, an OM2, or a D8000 I know I won't be struggling to try and figure out what the thing does.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

A PA system is as good as it's weakest component.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

I give everyone a Shure microphone. A decent Shure (PGX24 SM58) microphone is only $400. I use 2 of them every night. If they get broken Shure repairs them for $119. I have had mine for years they have never been broken they are built like tanks. I send them in every 2 years, just to get a new refurb. If someone wants a good mic I give them my Beta 87A or for the quite singer the Sennheiser G2 is a bit hotter and has a better gain to feedback ratio than the Shure mics.

I could buy new mics every year and it would cost less than $3 a gig to have good microphones.

You guys use what you want, I know what I hear. The Nady SP-1 might not be good for the average barfly because of higher handling noise, but it has good sound quality and I know how to handle a mic. The sound I got when I was practicing with it the other day really surprised me. Not for you? Don't use it.

You can tell everyone you want that a Samson Q7 mic element can't be any good because it's a Samson and not a Shure or Sennheiser. I was very impressed by the clarity and responsiveness of the Samson Q7 wireless I used a few days ago, it sounded great. It was easily one of the best sounding mics I've ever used. I imagine they were using a good amplifier too and that contributed to the overall clear, crisp sound that night. They were using some old Electro Voice speakers with big horns and 15" woofers that were suspended from the ceiling. They were likely 20-30 years old and still sounded good.

If you can only sing on $400 and up microphones, well, I just wonder. If you will only use a wireless, that excludes you from lots of Karaoke shows around here. In the future I will refrain from trying to share my experiences with others. It's not well received and I'm not interested in getting into pissing matches with equipment snobs.

I would sure like to hear STOGIE sing a song on the Singers Showcase with his Nady mic so I could hear what he thinks sounds great. There are thousands of people every year that try out for American Idol who think that they sound great too but they can't carry a tune in a bucket. Many people will defend whatever it is that they happen to own. Some people will swear by their Sweet Georgia Brown collection and their full set of Backstage discs.

Thanks Bruce, you made me chuckle, unintentionally I'm sure. I WILL be subbing some songs and you or anyone else can decide for yourself. I didn't post my experiences to defend anything, I posted them to share some personal experiences. I can see that that was a waste of time and misguided.

Just curious Bruce, have you submitted any songs?

We use four different mics, a Shure 58, an Apex 950, a Senn 865, and a Senn 825. The only mic I like better than the $35 Apex is the Senn 865. BTW the Apex comes with a clip and a 15' cord.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I've been to two shows where they use Peavey TLS speakers. Both places the sound was very good. There are tons of people that will tell you that Peavey speakers are junk. There is a lot of gear snobbery out there.

I went to one show that was using a Samson powered mixer and a pair of Samson speakers, the sound was good. I went to one show where they were using old plastic JBL speakers and the sound was terrible. I've talked to several people since then who have said the same thing about the sound at that show. Funny, lots of people love JBL speakers and think they're the cat's meow.

Some folks pay big money for Bose, other people say that Bose is overpriced kaka. People slam Behringer products all the time, Behringer sells lots of gear and I bet the majority of people who own Behringer products will give them a positive review.

There is certainly lots of low end, inexpensive audio equipment that is junk. No argument from me on that. There is also some very good gear that isn't Shure or Sennheiser or some other big name brand.

If you want to be a snob, a diva or a drama queen, go ahead.

You can find pro defenders of any of those brands. All of the ones you list have some good pieces of gear and some bad. Despite what you say, some Peavey speakers have a pretty good name for what they are. Samson doesn't have a bad name, just not a stellar one. Behringer has a bad name in general, but tons of users because it's stuff works acceptably (and sometimes great). All of these are pro gear at the low range of the pro scale. I use Peavey speakers sometimes, Behringer all the time, and even have a Samson amp. I was planning on trying one of those Q7 or other Samson wireless mics myself.

No pro defends Nady. None. Zero. And I have used their microphones, and I can see why. Their gear is priced at half or less of what other gear costs, and pros *still* don't buy it. That is a damning fact which is backed up by my own experience. It is decisive in my mind.

If Nady could come up with a killer piece of gear like Behringer did with the EP2500, B1800X, and DEQ2496, and start generally improving their quality, they might make a name for themselves and rise from the muck. But they have shown no signs of that.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I run a sennheiser freeport wireless hand held and a samson Stage series 5 wireless hand held exclusively. If and when my sennheiser gets dropped and broken I will be replacing it with another Stage series 5. Not only for the price but for the sound quality. the samson and the sennheiser are comparable in sound in my opinion.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Danny I read from your post that you feel the freeport is flimsy? I totally agree, I use one and I think the body is crap...I do like the sound however

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."