Sennheiser e609

I have been making music for 13 years and been involved with audio production for 6 years. I have used protools and currently use Cubase SX on a Mac.

This is a dynamic microphone built to mic guitar cabs. It is designed for live use so don't expect a fat sound during recording. It is great for mic'g close in and along with other microphones. It beats an SM 57 with better sound and design. They are also lighter. If recording is your game, buy a condensor. If live sound is your game, buy one.

I've been playing and trying to record guitars and
moaning since the opening of the Cretaceous period.
I record with a ProTools LE system hooked to an 8 bus board and monitor with Sony or AKG headphones or my JBL studio monitors at 200 watts a side.

I have always wanted one of these mics and now I wish I could buy three or four more.
I associate these mics with the cool middle period Pink Floyd sound.
They seem to have used the 409 quite a bit.
As far as the different models,specs and performance go, Sennheiser says this one is more "period" yhan the original 609.
I think that they tried a flat mic because the technology is there now , it's us who haven't caught up.
Nevertheless put aside any notion that this is a secondrate mic.

I find that this mic is smoother than a 57 , and because it has a gentle bump for a boost instead of the nasty peak that a 57 has you are not always fighting it. I like Clean sounds.
Not super clean but it usually already has a healthy dose of 5-6k coming from my amp.
Then you have to dial out the similar prescense peak in the 57.
Now you have zero mid control.
With the e-609 my board opened up in the midrange and experiments were happening
in frequencies previously unavailable or at least too harsh to take.
I tried it on my Mesa subway and it got a clean thick sound with no trouble at all.
Then I used an HK Cream machine thru a 12" w/ a close mic at whicper volume. Instant Marshall.
To be fair, I do use a DBX compressor on my mic inser set to be at 3 db down when the needle (or led) hits zero.
The e-609 requires a little more gain, trim or preamp volume than a 57 but who cares. This is a quite even sounding mic. I like it can you tell ?

Been making music for 30 years plus,still going stong, the phone keeps ringing.I have tons of studio experience,but i'm not a studio engineer,though i have mixed live shows for years,from local,to now line arrays with midas consoles and the like.I have decently trained ears.This review for the 609 is not based on an opinion from the engineers seat,but more from a live stage,and i'm playing the guiatr rig miked with these mikes,though i will intersperse opinions from the f.o.h. guy'

basic dynamic mic,stuck on Bogner cube.Two cubes,two mic's,stereo rig powered by boogie 395,Jmp1,TC g major,my cut down ,no frills rack.Oh yeah,I use a barber overdrive to get some of those elusive clean crunchy tones.Been using 57's for years,an occasional Sennheiser 421,and now these little 609's.There are better mic's,but for the money the 609's are really quite good.Close micing will require you boost bottom end a little at the desk,back off about 8 inches ,forget the boost.Really great isolation characteristics,literally no onstage bleedthrough if close miked., Extremely smooth and accurate,wonderfully smooth and transparent top end,These mic's make a SM57 sound harsh and muddy.I find the best sound comes from placing the mic to the side,just below the dust cap,angled away toward the side about 5 to 10 degrees.I love the stage isolation,the accuracy,the natural smoothness.If you are going into a pro system,you will be pleased with these mic's.If the horns out front are crap,so is your guitar tone.For most players ,these mic's should be perfectly adequate.I recommend them without hesitation.There are better mic's,but for live work,you would be hard pressed to find one that performs as well as this one does,especially with it's great isolation from other sounds on stage.The 421's sound good,but pick up the whole stage,the 57's are harsh in comparison.Great buy for the money.Go buy a couple of these,you wont be dissapointed.

im a sonic perfectionist. If it doesnt meet professional quality, im pissed.

using directly flat on my fender twin reverb. You can get professional quality sound but sometimes its a little hard. With two guitars, it sounds full and powerful when the guitars are panned hard left and hard right. Couldnt ask for more there. But with only one guitar its definetely lacking. Sounds thin, and lacks presence. When i use this mic with one guitar, i record the same part twice and pan it anyway to get a good sound. But this would get kind of old if i had to record an entire album like this.

its also not as good as i expected handling extremely high sound pressure. I record with my amp set to 2, 3 or 4 for the best sound. I have a boss gt-6, which almost acts as a guitar cab head, as far as pushing sound is concerned. So with the output on the boss at halfway, a twin reverb can get excruciatingly loud, 6 will blow your head off and 10 will bring down a small house. Tube amps sound better cranked, but i just cant get a good sound out with the amp at even 6. soo i was dissappointed there. but this shouldnt be a problem unless you have a tube amp that sounds horrible soft like some do.

so if your on a budget, this is a good buy, but for a little more try the e906 which will give a fuller sound on a single guitar. If you have more money, dont hesitate to go for an md441 or md421. But all in all, for the price you really cant complain.

I have been a home recordist for about 2 years now. I use an mbox/pro tools le, m-audio monitors, mesa-boogie dc-5 combo, etc.

This is a dynamic mic. I heard some great things about it on the net, and since it was only $110 dollars, why not try it out. I had been using the standard sm57 as well as an at3035 condenser. My experience with those mics was always a mixed bag, mostly ending up not sounding how I wanted them to. I would have to eq the hell out of them to get a usable sound. After having the e609 for about three hours now, I feel like I can provide some good advice about this mic. BUY IT NOW! This mic is great for my needs. I recorded some guitar tracks into pro tools le, and went to eq them, then I found out that the tracks without the eq were exactly what I wanted. Now, I'm no professional engineer, but if you're a home recordist who has had trouble laying down some heavy rock tones with that old sm57, go out and get the e609. You cannot beat the sound vs. price value. The mic is very flat and gave me exactly what I heard out of my amp, which is what every guitarist wants. The sm57 was always sounding thin to me, and even when I hard panned them, the guitars still sounded like they were somewhat in the middle of the mix. With this mic, the guitars are full, present, powerful, and clear. Sorry for ranting too much. Go buy this mic NOW!

I've been recording music for a long time as a musician and as an engineer. I started doing studio work in the early 70's as a musician. I've worked on album work and commercials in the Detroit area.I'm currently using a Korg d32-xd for my own studio work and to record my band. I own about 12 different mics and am comparing them to each other for the best and most realistic reproduction of what I'm recording.

The e609 was a mic I've been interested in trying for some time. I read some reviews here and for the price I thought I'd go for it. I've been using SM-57's for recording guitar cabs but felt I could do better, so at rehersal I set up the two mics exactly the same and recorded the rehersal to listen to the two later. I was amazed at the quality of the e609 it was larger and more defined then the SM-57. It sounded the was I heard it come out of the cab. The SM-57 was more muttled sounding and had less shimmer then the e609. I can't wait to get serious with it.

I've been in this business about 25 years.
Main equipment: Too much to list.

This is a response to the previous poster who gave this mic a "1" rating.
Obviously they are smitten with the Audix i5. Beleive me, they'll get bored with it. Not a bad mic but don't slam something else because of your love affair. This Sennheiser is extremely useful and musical!

I've been running a live sound company for 4 years, at least 75 shows a year. That's usually a Midas Venice, Crown amps, JBL SRx series speakers. I've had a recording studio for three years- Midas venice or Soundcraft Ghost mixer running into either a MOTU or Digi002 running on a Mac G4 dualie. I have Tannoy Reveal and M-Audio BX8 monitors.

I'm also an active musician, been gigging for the past 13 years.

Dynamic mic designed mostly for guitar, with a squarish side-address design that's easy to hang on cabinets. I've also used this on snare and toms. I've had it up against quite a few of the 'usual suspects' (57, md421, re20, etc).

When I'm doing live work, this is by far the first mic I grab for guitars. It's so easy to hang and sounds a bit more present than a 57. When recording, I prefer an MD421, but this is another nice spice in the cabinet. It's sounds good on smaller toms, a bit lacking for floor toms. Sometimes I prefer it as a snare mic, depending on the song.

I bought one to try out live. The next day I went and bought 5 more. They're cheap, sound good, and extremely easy to use.

Been making music for 10 years, have been recording demos for all the bands that i've been in for the last 5. I mostly use a Roland vs-880ex to record and then mix/master on my computer with cubase and sound forge. My primary listening equipement is my Kenwood surround system and my Sony MDR-V900 headphones.

dynamic hyper-cardiod mic. forget this mic. get the audix i5. i bought both and tested them at the same time. this mic is just a hyped sm57. maybe one degree better but you will still get that compressed lost in a metalic cave sound. read my audix i5 review. its the last mic i'll ever buy for guitar cabs (well except maybe for an re20 and a ribbon mic). It is much more open, accurate and truthfully than the this highly overated sennheiser. i got rid of this mic the next day.

I've been doing music for about 16 years now--mostly playing bass, guitar, or keyboards live. I don't have my own studio equipment beyond an old Tascam 4-track, but I've recorded various projects at studios from arranging, playing, singing, and mixing standpoints. This mic I'm using to mic my guitar amp for live playing and sending it to the house system. it's running into a Mackie SR series 4-bus board, through Yamaha and Crown amps, and out Peavey 15-inch, 2-way main enclosures and a sub, folded back through Yamaha and Carvin monitor wedges.

Okay, this is the E609 Silver dynamic cardioid mic, and obviously, its main use is micing guitar amps. Others have said they use it for toms, but I haven't bothered with that. I got for my guitar amp, and dang it, that's what it's getting used for.

Right now it's micing my Carvin Vintage Series Nomad 50 guitar amp, which is a 50-watt combo with a 12" speaker. This is placed behind me on an amp stand and slightly angled away from the back of my head when I play. The E609 I've come to like simply hung over the front of the amp (right on the grill!), positioned off center on the speaker cone (right in between the center and the edge). If I was using it for recording anything more than live scratch tracks, I'd put a lot more time and effort into mic postitioning, but with what little experimentation I've done, this setup works great for me.

This mic was in competition with the standard SM57 for this duty, as well as with some cheaper condensers. It was basically replacing the direct out from the amp (which stank with a great stink) and the other dynamics I had on hand to mic it with, such as old SM58s, AKG D-series mics, etc. I had been using the Sennheiser Evolution series vocal mics for a while, and since I really liked them (they're especially good for the money) I figured I'd give the E609 a try.

This mic can really handle the the high output of a guitar amp, and has a great sound. The great thing about the flat design is that you can put it right against a speaker grill and get as much gain as you need to without worrying about things like feedback, stage noise, or signal from other sources. For the price, this a great guitar amp mic. It's better in my opinion than an SM57, or anything in its price range. I've been very impressed with listening to CD and mini-disc recordings of our live playing and the sound that this mic gives. The sound of the guitar amp comes through without significant alteration, which is about all you can ask for in this kind of application. If you are going to record with this mic, don't expect the articulation and "air" of a $2,000 condenser mic, but if you want an improvement on the old SM57 for not much dough, this is a great mic, especially for live micing applications.

I'd definitely recommend it to others for the above-mentioned purpose, but frankly, if you've got a recording setup and several expensive condenser and ribbon mics, I don't think you'll need it. If you're going for a dynamic mic sound that's clear and punchy, with plenty of headroom, and you don't want to break the bank, get this mic! The only reason it doesn't get a perfect score is because I have pretty high standards, and while it's really good, it won't stand up under critical listening situations against mics costing 3 or 4 times its price.