"David Looser" wrote in
message
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
message ...
In article ,
Iain Churches wrote:
I would recommend the AKG C214, a large diaphram
cardioid pattern condenser mic

Head firmly in the clouds again, Iain?

No lie! This mic has a street price of almost $600 in the US. Just
looking at it, I can tell that it won't pass the critical-for-teenage-use
nail pounding test.

It's a very popular and ubiquitous medium-budget mic
Very good quality for the money.
Robust and reliable.

How does it pound nails? Any mic that can't sink any number of 6 penny
nails and still keep working will quickly be scattered broken parts in the
hands of your average 16 year old.

Did I tell you about the time I saw a SM58 used as a door stop by a teenage
band? BTW, this was no light residential door but a major entrance door with
a heavy hydraulic closer in a public venue.

It may, or may not meet Santa's budget criteria.
The OP did not specify a price range.

It was made clear that this was a first mic for a 16
year-old wanabee. That sounds far more like "low-budget"
than "medium-budget" to me.

For a 16-year-old, a SM58 or SM59 seems about right. Especially their
nail-pounding durability.

Someone before me bought a bunch of cheap Sennheiser dynamic mics for our
youth room sound system. This is a classic 14-16 year old usage situation.
The mics themselves have held up, but I had to replace every screw-on screen
ball because they fell apart.

I cannot imagine the kind of pudding a bunch of kids would make out of a mic
like the AKG C214. No matter, it would happen pretty quickly! For most of
us mortals who aren't million-dollar recording companies, $600 for this kind
of pudding is way beyond the pale.