Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Whether the SM48-LC is the vocal microphone for you depends on your sensitivity to the ratio of quality to price and your personal taste in microphone characteristics. It seems to be a well made instrument, so let's jump to the chase. I spent an afternoon doing A/B comparisons between the SM48 ($30), my nearly-new SM58 ($100), and a nearly-new Chinese SM58 knock-off (Digital Reference DRV-100), which I bought on sale for $10. I compared the three mikes through my P.A. system, with the equalizer flat and reverb settings they way I like them for the SM58, without trying to optimize them for each microphone (seemed like too much work). In addition, I was using the P.A. line out to my Sony MDR-7506 Sound Monitor Headphones, rather than the P.A. speakers, to allow more critical listening. For my voice, P.A., and settings, I found both Shure microphones to be quite usable for a live performance, but the DRV-100 was a distant third for vocal quality. After many comparisons over the course of an afternoon, I found that I do prefer the sound of the SM58 enough that I will continue to use it as my live performance vocal microphone, especially since I already own it, but I would not feel particularly inconvenienced if I had to use the SM48. There are differences in the way they sound, but I'm not sure they would be noticeable, to the average listener, out of the P.A. speakers in a live show. I'm pretty sure that would not be the case for the DRV-100. I then compared the two cheaper microphones, through the same setup, when used as instrument microphones for my 60's era Martin 000-18. Again, there was a lot of difference in the sound. The higher efficiency of the DRV-100 required a gain adjustment each time I swapped instruments, but I kept the equalizer flat. So far I somewhat prefer the DRV-100 as an guitar microphone, probably because I prefer a brighter sound for finger-style work and the SM48 may prove to be fine for instrument use once I fool around with the equalizer. In summary, if it proves to be durable, the SM48-LC is a lot of microphone for the money. It demonstrates the way of the electronic world: you can get a lot of quality for not very much money and you may have to pay a lot more to get something even a little bit better.