MXL 992 LDC bargain

[douglas baldwin]

Apparently the MXL 992 LDC is out of production. Musician's Friend just blew them out for $70 a pop in their Stupid Deal of the Day. I grabbed two. My apologies for not alerting y'all - I just didn't have the time.

Check around - some other big box might be blowing them out, too.

According to some reviews, they are a pleasant upgrade from the 990 - a true large diaphragm, a -10dB attenuation switch and a bass rolloff switch. Also, the circuit is said to be better, and has less of that MXL 990 tzizzzz in the highs. Oh, and an aluminum case and a large shock-mount! I'll post a review when they arrive. Further constructive comments from y'all would be appreciated.

[lefthanddoes]

I have two of those. They definitely have the tzizzz. Fortunately I've had them long enough to have developed and fine-tuned a preset for Logic's linear phase EQ. The tzizzz is about 4db at 15.8khz.

[lefthanddoes]

Also, if you tighten the screw on the shockmount, be careful when you loosen it because it breaks really easily. In fact would work it loose by moving the shockmount up and down before you try untwisting the screw. I've had it replaced twice. They were nice and just sent me a whole new shockmount.

As you can see I'm down with workarounds, but I do like these mics, they're pretty smooth especially for the money.

[jgimbel]

The 992 was my first LDC after the 990. I found it a huge step up in vocal sound by comparison (simply not actually being an SDC in an LDC body), so I liked it better but definitely true that it's got the harsh high end chinese condensers are known for. I kept using it though, with a little EQ, not too bad. Then one day it stopped working. Checked cables, everything else, it was the mic. I had the warranty, sent it back, they sent it to me "fixed". It worked for a couple weeks, then had the same issue. Evidently under the warranty they will only "fix" something once (I guess regardless of if it's actually fixed, they'll only even look at it once). I don't remember if this was MXL's words or Musician's Friend's words, so I don't want to say it's all MXL's fault. But I've had a non-functioning mic in my cabinet for a while now. There have been times I've wished it worked just as another option, but I've gotten used to working without it so it's just been sitting there. Maybe it's time to toss the mic and use the case as a decent case for my case-less AT4050. I clearly got a dud mic, and I don't know that this happens often, but that has been my experience with this mic.

[lank81]

Definitely good prices on those mics and you can always get Mike Joly to mod them and make them great mics!

[douglas baldwin]

Good info, team. And speaking of mods, I am going to check the basket for that extra layer of spit-shield (and rip it out if it's there) and put a piece of foam in the body to eliminate that "tong-tong" sound when you tap it. Someday I'll get into swapping out the caps, or maybe just send them to Guru Joly.