Product: Apex Electronics 185
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
03/15/2007
at
12:31am
by
Bill Ruys
Email: bill dot ruys<at>siliconaudio dot co dot nz
Reviewer Background
:
I've been recording in my Project Studio for several years. I mainly record my own and other local bands. Record to Sonar via Delta 1010 audio interfaces. Monitor via Tannoy near fields.
Overall Rating
:
4
The Apex 185 is a small diaphragm condenser mic that is only sold in "matched" pairs - you can't buy them separately. The mics are supplied with cardioid capsules fitted and an additional pair of omni capsules which screw onto the body. Rounding up the package, you also get a pair of reasonable quality elastic-suspended shock mounts. All components are supplied in a rather basic plastic carry case. Unfortunately, the foam in the top of the case isn't thick enough to hold the mics in the closed-cell plastic foam cut-outs in the bottom of the case. As a result, one of the mics had come loose in transit and had a few scratches on the body when I received my pair. Fortunately, this did no damage to the capsule or electronics, as the mics sounded reasonably similar during testing.
The microphone bodies have separate high-pass and 10 dB pad switches. This is better than some cheap mics that use only one 3-way switch, giving you the option of either high-pass or pad, but not both.
I purchased the 185 pair as general purpose SDC, but with the intention of using them as drum overheads. I already own a pair of Rode NT5's, but though the additional omni caps would give me more options.
In testing the 185's in cardioid mode against the Rode NT5's, they fall very short of the sound quality of the Rodes. Cymbals sound harsh and metallic, yet not particularly bright. The snare drum loses much of it's articulation and clarity, sounding a little muffled and slightly "out of focus". The 185's also don't extend as low as the Rode's, making the toms sound not quite so rich. The 185's do output plenty of signal and are actually slightly hotter than the NT5's. Their self-noise also seems to be very low.
The mics fear a little better on guitar. I performed some limited recording with the mics configured as an XY pair on acoustic guitar and they didn't sound too bad. Without so much high frequency content in the source, they don't sound so bad.
In summary, the 185's are nice and quiet, and do an OK job with some sources. But, they really fall over if there's much high frequency content in the source. This severely limits the usability of these mics.
