Ive watched this about 6 times over a week or so. The B2Pro has the extremely similar U87 spec on freq chart, Behringers dual diaphragm capsule, multi pattern etc… case, shockmount popfilter. I’ve been on a U87 thing and AKG stuff starting with the spec chart in cardiod. U87 is pretty flat and the little bump is matched very very well with the AKG 2000B but this B2PRO is even closer in design and build with the capsule and multi pattern.
is the bottom end gear
just getting better and better?
The B2Pro does sounds thinner on his vocals, but for someone on a budget it seems like a good choice.
I’m not sure that lower end gear is getting better, but computerized manufacturing is reducing inconsistencies in product lines.
Microphone technology hasn’t really changed much in 60 years. The rest of the recording chain has seen the most technological change.
There’s nothing in this B-2 that is anything new. It was released in 2001. 17 years in microphone technology is like 2 days in every other field. Not much has changed at all in those 17 years, so to say it’s getting better is like saying a slug is moving along in his cross country voyage.
We have more options, and better competition, but I’ve seen little evidence of anything getting much better. The price of the high end stuff has come down. I guess more specifically, what used to cost $2000 can now be found for $500 from smaller microphone manufacturers. And there are a lot more $100 microphones than there were 20 years ago. So in that sense, you get more variety in the low end, which I guess leads to better options in the low end.
In that video, the B2 sounded quite a bit different from the U87. The B-2 had less low end, and quite a bit more high end. They are both perfectly fine mics, but they don’t really sound the same any more than any two random condenser mics sound the same.
I couldnt hear much difference, maybe some small eq to match them.
That Slate VMS matching the SONY $10,000 mic was pretty close too.
found this…I was contacting someone near me for renting a U87 to hear it, but then these tests on the internet do a lot of that too…rent one for a month or buy one for the same price around $150.
To buy or rent?
…just so you understand the B2’s origin…
…when Rode moved the manufacturing of their original NT2 (highly regarded at the time) from China to Australia, their Chinese manufacturer, 797audio, was left with inventory of body shells and capsules…
…Behringer contracted the original B2 (cardioid only) from 797audio using those same bodies and capsules (797audio is one of the better capsule manufacturers in China…trained by German engineers) using a stock circuit copied from a vintage German design…the B2 was well recieved and the B2-Pro was later added as a multi-pattern version…
…to my knowledge, the B2-Pro is still built by 797audio (if you look on the circuit board you may still see the “797audio” logo etched on the surface)…797audio built many of the better quality Chinese mics for MXL, ADK, Studio Projects and others at the time and continues to manufacture for many of these companies…they now also manufacture some of the highly regarded Neve 1073-clone mic preamps as well…
…at the low-ball Behringer pricepoint, the B2-Pro is definately a very nice LDC that would benefit greatly from a few mod upgrades…
Theres so many 87 copys its amazing.
The greatest posts are the dudes that have 8qty Neumann 87’s and say they all sound different due to age and use and wear and tear…
Reading Neumanns site and a tour someone went on, the real company does massive QC. They are really serious about quality.
Others and clones I don’t know. I looked up Behringers factory as deep as I could and Uli spent a lot on his QC and anechoic chamber stuff. As much as Uli was flamed for stealing ideas, today the masses are even more blatant about being a XL-87 or AA-87 or SA-87 or WA-87 or AS-87 or AW-87 or MM-87 or ZK-87 or UM-87 it seems. Not that its bad, and there are some great products based on the U87 benchmark…but its confusing.
the U87 and U87ai don’t really have the same specs either, for example.
“the U87 is the benchmark LDC” it seems I get that part. It has that 87 sound …I guess… but past that it gets confusing what a U87 sounds like. Im not even sure renting one will tell me what all the U87’s ever made will sound like. U87i or U87ai are the benchmarks…
the Stam Auido 87 clone seems passionate about copying the old U87 for $690, maybe that’s a cheaper approach to a U87 …. kind of a mid-level 87 copy versus the Behringer B2Pro $150 level copy?
anyone have a pile of U87 clones and post shopping experience?
I don’t. Thats one mic which I don’t have any experience with is clone counterparts.
This guy used a match eq to get pretty close