TAKSTAR Condenser Microphone with Windscreen, Professional Cardioid Mic, XLR Gold-Plated Diaphragm Recording Microphone for Singing, Studio, Instrument, Interview, Radio Stations, Broadcast - CM-60

For the price paid, this is a really great microphone. I use it for recording my saxophone tracks to upload to my online saxophone studies. It picks up the sound really well on my recorder, and is a good value for the price paid.

I use this TAKSTAR model to record everything from solo instruments to full orchestras. While it is a relatively small diaphragm unit the signal to noise ratio has been excellent and it handles quite high SPLs with no distortion. The frequency response, as shown in its spec sheet, is almost ruler flat from 20 Hz to 17 kHz with a broad rise of approx. 4 dB around 10 kHz, ensuring a completely natural, uncolored sound. The cardioid pattern and frequency response uniformity is very good, allowing these to work very well in an ORTF configuration. I have a $600 coincident dual-capsule condenser microphone, but I've found the CM-63 to provide slightly more extended low end and similar high-end. These have become my favorites for general recording! The case is nicely machined and painted, and material quality is excellent. I recommend this model without reservation for most any field or studio recording.

Fantastic mic. It works perfectly for recording.

I bought this with the intention of using it as a donor body and circuit for a microphone parts sdc capsule (which costs 5x what this entire microphone costs!). I have to say, when I tested this microphone out stock, I was actually very surprised by how good it sounded as is. With the capsule replacement, it rivals a Neumann km184, but even with the stock capsule I would still say this mic is worth every penny. It even comes with a dual 5/8 and 3/8 microphone clip! Never seen one of those before!

Great drum overhead

Like this CM-60 more than CM-63. You can easily use this mic instead of an SM7B for podcast or YouTube. Imho.

Works great for my home studio.

So, I compared this to PGA-81. This sounds stuffy and doesn't seem to capture a lot of high end. I am going to use these for drum overheads so ... probably fine that they aren't great at picking up high frequency details. I wouldn't use this to record stringed instruments or anything.