sE1a Mics

[Malcolm Boyce]

I have a line on a super cheap pair of sE1a mics. Any opinions on these? Andrew, what do you think about their usefulness and value? Comparisons?

[macrae11]

They're sort of the best of the worst. They have that vintage chinese sound going on if you know what I mean. SE is a pretty good company, and I like a lot of their products, however the SE1a's are just barely in the useable range for me. They'd do for utility purpose stuff, hats, maybe some percussion. I hate them on overheads. That being said their value isn't terrible, because they're super cheap.

There's a big step up in quality when you go up to the SE2 or SE3. They sound better than the apex stuff, worse than the new MXL stuff, way worse than Rode, shouldn't be allowed in the building of the really good stuff.

All this being said, I'd buy a pair for $125, just to have around. Also, my memory is a little hazy, but I may have only used the SE1, don't know if the "a" version was out when I used them. YMMV.