CAD M9

Making Music: I have been playing trombone since 1963 and guitar and bass since 1968 with a B.A. Degree in Music with technical hours in Radio and TV. I played with a Metropolitan Status Symphony Orchestra for 10 years as well as playing for Ice Shows, Circuses, Al Martino, Jerry Vale, Carol Lawrence, Gunther Schuler, George Shearing, Jazz Festivals and so on as an AF of M member.
Recording Experience: Performance wise, I have done NY scale recording to 2 inch tape, Digital Recording as early as the 1980's', and Orchestral Recordings that were played on Public Radio.
I currently have a slowly growing home studio currently based around a Yamaha AW16G 16 track Work Station listening through Alesis Monitors. Other equipment includes Focusrite, Lexicon, ART, CAD, sE Electronics, Carvin, Fender, Crate/JBL, Yamaha, Line 6, Ensoniq, Bach Stradivarius and so on.

The CAD M9 is a cardioid only large diaphragm Tube Condensor microphone. It comes with a very large aluminum case, 30 ft 7-pin cable, power supply, and a heavy-duty shockmount. It also comes with it's own frequency plot/graph! The workmanship/finish on my unit is not the greatest but I didn't buy it for it's looks. (However, my rating would be higher if the finish and workmanship were better.) I did buy it after reading some reviews and "hearing" about it on a number of the on-line recording forums. Comments such as "incredible buy for the money", "a microphone you'll likely keep forever even when you buy costlier mics" and similar comments made me take the plunge. I have had it for a couple of months and used it on vocals and acoustic guitar. This is a bright sounding microphone but not what one would consider brittle. I personally think the tube takes off the edge and makes it a very useable microphone. On my voice (baritone) it brings it to the forefront in the mix. On my Carvin Cobalt 750 Acoustic Guitar, it sounds fantastic. I used this mic with my Focusrite TrakMaster Pro using just the "pre" and the guitar sound is just great and those who have heard it, concur. In the end, I have to agree with comments I have "heard" about this mic. For someone looking to purchase an entry level tube mic, I'd suggest bypassing some of the less expensive ones currently available and save just a bit more and consider the CAD M9 as your first tube mic.

I run a recording studio in the Albany, New York area. That means I spend my time listening to music at concerts, here in the studio, and playing back from the computer. I've always been an ADAT kinda guy, and now I use the HD-24, Digital Performer, and a host of mics gathered here and there. I have some Tannoy Reveal speakers and Sytek pre-amps, but most of the gear is pretty humble and I find the "making it work" part is pretty integral to the whole process. This review was written for TapeOp Magazine, but guessy whatty--CAD had not paid for their advertising, wasn't about to, and there was some juicy ol' bad vibes going down. So that was that!

CAD M9 tube microphone

Stand up on your desk and scream after me: "THIS IS A TUBE MIC FOR $300!" With a streamlined (but picky!) production process
using dirt-cheap foreign parts and assembly-line teamwork, your best new friends at Conneaut Audio Devices have wrought a
warm, incredibly detailed single pattern cardioid 12AX7 tube mic WITH a 3dB @ 100 Hz rolloff AND a -16 dB pad for, like we
were screaming, NOTHING!
The whole look and feel reminds me of spaceships on the Saturday morning re-runs of Buck Rogers--sleek and gorgeous, but
also cheap and utilitarian, but yet very dramatic. The fine, dense stainless-steely undermesh of the grille, guarding the
capsule, just bespeaks the infinite power of science and manufacturing. I think of mine as my "6W" because I suspend it
upside down--a good practice to keep the heat, which builds up, up and away from the delicate dirt-cheap parts, and for
which purpose the back shell is ported... and through which the tube glows eerily. (Actually the design is an evolution of their
M-37. The way this company creates outstandingly useful mics, and then discontinues them and moves on to create even
better models--should I save it for the messageboard?) (And their fantabulous, efficient customer service--off topic, but very
much on my mind, and yours, when it matters.)
My first test was pretty goofy but an acid test. I fired up my favorite Casio keyboard, the Rapman. I set one of its disco beats
churning out the little speaker. By lowering the M9 to within microns of the speaker and monitoring on headphones, it all
sounded... real! I could subtly shift the angle and bring out the sheen of the cymbals, or accentuate the fretting of the bass
player's fingers. The horn stabs were sharp and stinging. The density was deep, and throbbing, and... tubey! Using it to track
acoustic guitar for an on-going singer/songwriter project was an eye-opener. Compared to the previous guitar tracks, suddenly
the Takemine was glitteringly, sputteringly alive, the bob and weave of her performance was there. The low frequency
response is rich beyond reason, starting at a subterranean 10 Hz, and then following a standard CADian just-about-nearly-flat
curve until you reach a plateau from 3 - 7 kHz, and then a big hump at 12 kHz. When this is "presence" and when it edges over
into "too much high end" is maybe why there's "brightness" and there's "shrill" and something of a no man's land betwixt the
two. As a center fill for a large, spread-out chorus, it provided almost a photographic, reach-out-and-touch kind of definition
to the group, and the space the group filled. Using it as a lead vocal mic for an original cast album tracked in a large
auditorium, it captured the texture and the resonance of the hall in a reassuring and comforting way. But look, we need some
criticism--so I'll say my one attempt to use it as a lone drum overhead during a noisy jam session didn't work--cymbals too
there, the woofy murk of the room too there. Although it never even nearly distorted, as it's spec'd to tolerate a deafening
140 dB. Bright shrill piccolo leads, the shriek of an incoming missle--you might reach for a different mic in those cases.
Its aluminum case is enormous, 8" X 12" X 15" and includes a power supply and AC cord, its own proprietary 30-foot 7-pin
gold-plated mic cable, and a super-excellent shock mount. The case is so huge that with a little judicious hollowing of foam
you can carry two complete sets of M9's in one case, which is what I plan to do if I EVER GET MY SECOND ONE, which I ordered
last August. (I have been assured that the temporary interruption in supply is just about almost over.) You can upgrade to a
vintage tube with the greatest of ease and get even more warm/cuddly response, but for applications calling for
luscious/accurate sound for sources near and far, this thing just as is just rocks. It just do