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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Generalization for element's tone
Generalization for element's tone
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puri
132 posts
Oct 23, 2013
8:25 AM
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Is there any? Shure got many label for a certain kind of element - 99x86 for example, a,b,c,g,etc can you say in general that which one is better than another tone wise? Or is it all down to how do they sound individually? Just curious, thanks.
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Greg Heumann
2426 posts
Oct 23, 2013
9:20 AM
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The Shure CM's and CR's are excellent elements with that "brown sound" - anything from the single impedance CM on up is very, very good. Let me try to describe the difference this way:
1 - dual impedance CM (99S556)
2 - single impedance CM (i.e., 99A86, 99B86)
3 - premium CM
4 - white label CR
5 - black label CR
The difference between a 1 and a 5? Anyone can hear it. The 5 is warmer, fatter and grittier. Between a 2 and a 4? Most good players can hear it. Between any two adjacent numbers? A really good player can hear it - but the variation from one element to the next of the SAME category is as big or bigger a difference. In other words, moving from a 4 to a 5 improves your odds, but may or may not result in an appreciably better element. The price IS driven by both tone AND scarcity which is why the price begins to get really steep. I put #2 elements in my wood mics by default and they are very, very good elements. (In fact, the difference between 1 and 2 is a good deal greater than any other interval.)
The older the element, the better it is, in MOST people's opinions, and that means "for getting a big fat warm blues tone through a tube amp." If you are a beginner or intermediate level player, you will likely not be able to hear the difference between these elements, ALL of which have a characteristic sound and ALL of which are better than the element in the current 520DX, and WAY WAY better than the elements that come in the other currently available commercial bullet mics like the Blues Blaster, Peavey, Bushman, etc. If you have a well developed cupping technique and a good tube amp, then you will hear the difference. The elements vary from one to another within the same model number too, enough that there is some overlap. A lousy CR is not as good as a good CM, even though it may cost you 2-3x as much. The white label CR's, and early (what I call premium) white label CM's are a great step up from a regular CM and a good value.
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/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
BlueState - my band
Bluestate on iTunes
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rogonzab
400 posts
Oct 23, 2013
9:39 AM
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I have these two CM:
99S556: agressive mids, very rocker. Not so much bass.
99B86: Very warm, big fat bass. I would love a litle more mids.
That is my experience.
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puri
133 posts
Oct 24, 2013
7:13 PM
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That's very informative, Greg. Thank you very much. It's just the kind of information I'm looking for. I'll save it just for my own reference.
One question, among the single impedance elements does it matter what letter they got in the label? 99a & 99b are most mentioned, does it mean they're better than another?
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Greg Heumann
2430 posts
Oct 24, 2013
8:12 PM
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I have never been able to discover any difference between 99A and 99B elements - as far as I know they are the same. I am not 100% sure. Other single impedance CM's include 99G86, 99H86, 99N556, 99X86...
If anyone can make sense of Shure's product model number scheme I'd love to hear about it. It is NOT part of Dave Kott's wisdom (greenbulletmics.com). For example, you can find 99A86, 99B86, 99G86 and 99H86 model numbers on black label CR's, white label CR's and CM's. These numbers simply didn't refer to individual designs.
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***************************************************
/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
BlueState - my band
Bluestate on iTunes
Last Edited by Greg Heumann on Oct 24, 2013 8:13 PM
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