AKG SR40

I have been recording at home since 1987, first with on ordinary tape recorder, then a Fostex 4 track x15 series 2, and now on a Fostex VFR 160 digital recorder. I've written over 50 songs and you can hear some at www.myspace/theaaronhart I also work as a singer, since 2003, performing as Elton John, playing piano and singing, and Adam Ant. I use a corded SM58 for Elton and a wireless AKG SR40 for Adam Ant. Singing is my full-time job.

Dynamic Mic
I use it for live performances. I need to move around a lot.
I also considered the SM58 cordless, and a JTS mic.
I am not a fan of Sennheisers, as I find them too shrill and middly, better for female voices or very smooth male voices (which mine is not always!) However I do use a Sennheiser in the band I work for, and if you must buy one, you can only get a hlaf-decent one for upwards of ??400 which is way overpriced.

I bought the AKG because it has a nice rubbery grip (so you don't drop it) it is compact, especially compared to the cordless SM58, and it uses a single AA battery for 24 hours, so is cheap to run.

I put this mic into one channel of my mixer, and put my corded SM58 into another channel, and I COULD NOT TELL THE DIFFERENCE between them!! If you really pin me down, I'll say this mic lacks a touch of the top detail of the corded 58, but what radio mic has perfect top anyway? The thing is, the higher the frequency you are singing at, the more information the mic has to send to be true to the amount of complexity you are making with your voice. So radio mics will always lack detailed top.

This mic is good enough for demo recordings, if you like walking around the studio (as I do) while you are siging. I would always use corded for proper recordings.

The SR40 also gives you the option of balanced (stereo jack) or unbalanced (mono jack) output, depending how lazy you are. It would have been nice to get a stereo jack to xlr lead with it, as this might be hard to get hold of, if you don't have a big specialist shop near you. I also noticed an occasional click on this mic, but I was using it unbalanced, and I suspect this would not happen if it was balanced.

I believe this mic is also known as the WMS40 or the flexx (please correct me if this is not quite right)

It is sold for ??100 - ??200. I got mine for ??100. ??130 is a reasonable price.
For the price you cannot go wrong with this mic. For most cabaret you do not need anything more costly.

I have not tested the full range ie distance that it can transmit over.