----------------------------------- D. M. Gremlin Mon Oct 11, 2004 1:30 am Re: MXL SD mic line? ----------------------------------- Hey there - sorry for the really slow reply here. Here's what I think I know about the 603S, 991s etc - MXL has made a deal with Musicians Friend and Guitar Center to make for them an exclusive and ultra-cheap mic line, a decision that I think is in the long run a mistake. From what I understand - though I'll confirm this again with the guy at MXL I talk to about this stuff - the 991/990 and all the exclusive mics sold to the giant corporations are made of cheaper parts than their counterparts. They are NOT re-labeled versions of the same mics. This mistaken association is why I think that this move by MXL is a mistake - they have a few very good mics, but now their name is going to be associated with these cheap - low quality microphones instead, ultimately sabotaging their future. Case in point - the V77S was discontinued. I'm pretty sad about this. This is the second microphone of theirs that I was very fond of that got jack-shit for marketing and ended up getting discontinued. I still use the MXL 1000s for my tom mics when miking drums and they sound better than anything else - I hope none of those break. Now I pray that the two V77S' that I use here in the studio continue to have a long life to them. I'm hoping that the mod that I'm going to do for the MXL V69M can be a replacement or an improvement to the V77S but that has yet to be seen. The mod I'm going to do is to put a 6072 tube - same type as in the AKG C-12VR, and similar to the one that shipped with the V77Ss - in the V69M (replacing the cheap tube that it comes with) and see what the mic with the new tube and internal mogami wiring sound like in comparison to the 77S. Still waiting to get the tube though, likely to happen sometime next week.