Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Price and performance wise, this mic is as good or better than the sm58. I have been using 3 the of Behringer xm8500 mics in my home studio for over 5 years now. The sound or 'flavor' of this mic is almost identical to an early 90's Shure sm58 that I also use in the studio. The only noticeable difference between the two (sound wise) is the xm8500 has a tiny bit more output, and the presence peak is slightly lower in the frequency scale - I would describe this as the sm58 peak being slightly airy and cutting, and the xm8500 being thick and meaty. If you are using this mic with a 3 band eq, you can bump the mids slightly and match the sound of the xm8500 to that of the sm58 with no problem. Build wise, this mic is as beastly and tank-like as the sm58. It has a nice heft to it, solid metal housing, all that good stuff. This mic excels on vocals, close mic'ing drums, bass cabs, guitar cabs,...basically anywhere you would normally use an sm58, you can use this mic there and it will perform like a champ. My favorite task for this mic is bass amps, and toms. The presence bump on this mic makes toms sit just right in the mix w/out having to fuss with the eq too much (you get the nice low end 'thwump' and the necessary mid range 'slap' to not only hear, but FEEL the toms in the mix). Do yourself a favor and build some xlr patch cables with resistor(s) in them to better match the low impedance signal of this dynamic mic to the high impedance inputs of today's mic preamps. You will find that the mic will perform as it (or actually the sm58 it is modeled after) was designed to. Google 'taming the shure' for more info. For about $20, this mic definitely beats out the sm58 in my book. Don't be a gear snob,...get your money's worth and try out this mic.