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Post by eyebytwomuchgeer on May 12, 2024 16:12:49 GMT -6
Ya know what’s most likely to suffer over time? The quality of the chrome. Anyone here have any cheap chinese mic chrome that still looks clean? Unlikely. I have two Apex 205. Just picked them up recently, but they seem well used. The chrome (?) is fine though. I'm guessing they are 10-15 years old? They sound great and complement my 4038 really nicely. When I'm practicing and just recording all of my clams, its the 205 out front. |
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Post by nick8801 on May 12, 2024 17:27:01 GMT -6
I'm probably the fussiest on 44 Styles. It was my "First Love"!  Also I try to factor in the "size" of the Room". IMHO to have the AEA or OG 44 shine at it's best... Best to get an exceptional sounding/large Room. More pragmatic for me if/when I get a 44 Style... With the Cloud Active. It sounded very well suited for Medium to Small Rooms. Chris I’m really looking forward to the 1st shootout between the Warm, an AEA, and possibly a vintage 44. |
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Post by andersmv on May 12, 2024 18:36:33 GMT -6
I reached out to Warm about doing a review, who knows if they’ll get back to me. I’ve got an AEA R88 and a vintage RCA PB-90 I can do some comparisons with. Obviously not the same, but I think it will give everyone a ballpark idea of where it sits when next to those two…
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Post by chessparov on May 12, 2024 19:56:11 GMT -6
I do hope Cloud could be included in a 44 shootout. Not that much $$ more than Warm, for the likely quality difference.  Chris |
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Post by EmRR on May 24, 2024 6:20:26 GMT -6
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Post by Ward on Jun 18, 2024 8:23:47 GMT -6
Does anyone know this guy or have any contact with him? Wondering if he got an original 44bx to compare his AEA 440 to. Clearly, the Warm is not a contender.
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Post by andersmv on Jun 18, 2024 8:32:02 GMT -6
Does anyone know this guy or have any contact with him? Wondering if he got an original 44bx to compare his AEA 440 to. Clearly, the Warm is not a contender. I had seen this guy do a comparison to his vintage RCA and it was much closer sounding than the above video. If anything, my take away was "Ya, the active A440 sounds great". Their active mics sound a bit different than the passive versions in the comparisons I've done, but using the adjustable cloudlifter was about as good of a compromise as possible to get the comparison close. I'm assuming he used the same preamp in the above comparison, but we would have to confirm. Again, the ribbon material is much different and tuned very different between these two. It sounds like someone on the purple site is sending their Warm off to ENAK/Pittman to have it re-ribboned. That's what I would have done if I were buying one of the warms. Regardless of all those potential issues, you can't ignore how different they sound (which is surprising considering how close the spec's are). Ribbon material and tuning make a big difference, I'm still leaning on that being the factor here. But what do I know... |
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Post by Ward on Jun 18, 2024 8:52:06 GMT -6
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Post by andersmv on Jun 18, 2024 12:09:08 GMT -6
I'm still just guessing here  . I wish I had the money right not to grab one and find out... |
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Post by hadaja on Jun 18, 2024 13:42:18 GMT -6
Mine should arrive tomorrow.
At some point I will test it out against my 44bx and aea r44ce.
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Post by EmRR on Jun 18, 2024 14:39:18 GMT -6
Does anyone know this guy or have any contact with him? Wondering if he got an original 44bx to compare his AEA 440 to. Clearly, the Warm is not a contender. That comparison totally bones it, active against passive with a Cloudshitter. Waste of space. |
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Post by Ward on Jun 18, 2024 16:15:52 GMT -6
Does anyone know this guy or have any contact with him? Wondering if he got an original 44bx to compare his AEA 440 to. Clearly, the Warm is not a contender. That comparison totally bones it, active against passive with a Cloudshitter. Waste of space. I guess we'll out you in the "somewhat undecided" category at this point. LOL |
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Post by hadaja on Jun 18, 2024 19:15:37 GMT -6
THe guy in the videos response:
"Hey, this is David. I posted the AEA A440 (mine which I own) vs. the WA-44 (which I rented to compare) shootout. I plugged both mics into the same Stam 312-T pre-amps that I have a matched pair of. The WA-44 I also plugged into a Cloudlifter Hi-Z and set it at 2.8k impedance which is what I saw recommended as the impedance for a 44 style ribbon mic and I gave it the Max output on the CL-Z which is 28 db of clean gain. I did that in hopes to give the WA-44 which is passive the best chance against the AEA
which is active. I had no incentive for the AAA to win in the test. Quite the opposite, I would prefer that the WARM Audio microphone wins and sounds better, because then I would sell my AEA microphone and save thousands of dollars 😅. I did not manipulate the audio. What you hear from the audio is the direct audio from both of of the microphones volume matched, and with no EQ or compression other than a Weiss limiter barely touching the stereo bus to catch a couple peaks. When I posted the video on my Instagram I tagged AEA as a collaborator because I knew they would want to hear the difference since in my opinion it was very obvious in their favor. But they did not see my video before I posted it, and they had no input into the video or its results. The audio was definitely not manipulated to make them look/sound better."
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Post by EmRR on Jun 18, 2024 19:45:31 GMT -6
That comparison totally bones it, active against passive with a Cloudshitter. Waste of space. I guess we'll out you in the "somewhat undecided" category at this point. LOL A cloudcrapper is actually relatively low impedance. Almost every modern preamp input is 2x and even an old Mackie is higher. It also can’t possibly compete or compare against an internal active which will use a transformer doing much more of the work, because it can, being internal and directly connected. The cloud thing is just a weird band-aid in this kind of comparison, which isn’t the same mic apples to apples. If you’re gonna rent a mic rent 2 “same type”, so it’s apples to apples. Nothing to see here…. |
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Post by andersmv on Jun 18, 2024 20:13:14 GMT -6
I guess we'll out you in the "somewhat undecided" category at this point. LOL A cloudcrapper is actually relatively low impedance. Almost every modern preamp input is 2x and even an old Mackie is higher. It also can’t possibly compete or compare against an internal active which will use a transformer doing much more of the work, because it can, being internal and directly connected. The cloud thing is just a weird band-aid in this kind of comparison, which isn’t the same mic apples to apples. If you’re gonna rent a mic rent 2 “same type”, so it’s apples to apples. Nothing to see here…. So, your a fan of the cloudlifters? |
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Post by EmRR on Jun 19, 2024 8:27:42 GMT -6
A cloudcrapper is actually relatively low impedance. Almost every modern preamp input is 2x and even an old Mackie is higher. It also can’t possibly compete or compare against an internal active which will use a transformer doing much more of the work, because it can, being internal and directly connected. The cloud thing is just a weird band-aid in this kind of comparison, which isn’t the same mic apples to apples. If you’re gonna rent a mic rent 2 “same type”, so it’s apples to apples. Nothing to see here…. So, your a fan of the cloudlifters? Mostly useless - also not the point - you can't compare these mics like this. It's as nonsensical as putting an RCA 44 through an OP-6 to compare against a Warm 44 through a Sytek. |
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Post by nick8801 on Jun 19, 2024 8:39:43 GMT -6
This is weird...I could swear I've seen another video he did where he compared them both and they were almost exactly the same sounding. Those mic booster boxes can get weird with certain preamps. My Triton FET Head did a similar thing with my old Useful Arts Pre and it does it now with my Chandler Redd Pre. It makes the sound all wooly and kind of distorted. A cool effect, but not what I would use in a comparison. Lemme see if I can find that other video....
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Post by nick8801 on Jun 19, 2024 8:40:57 GMT -6
Ahh here it is...Not him, and this is WA44 vs the original RCA. Warm sounds great.
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Post by hadaja on Jun 19, 2024 17:58:54 GMT -6
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Post by nick8801 on Jun 19, 2024 18:11:29 GMT -6
Wow! That’s awesome!
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,083 
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Post by ericn on Jun 20, 2024 10:42:19 GMT -6
So, your a fan of the cloudlifters? Mostly useless - also not the point - you can't compare these mics like this. It's as nonsensical as putting an RCA 44 through an OP-6 to compare against a Warm 44 through a Sytek. I think the problem is we all can agree the in-line boosters are a handy save your ass problem solver, but as far as an essential part of the signal chain, if you need one re think the signal chain. I’ll admit to constantly considering a pair for the go bag, because I know just like that little Aphex 1/2 rack -10 to +4 interface in the rack at some point it’s going to save my ass. |
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Post by jacobamerritt on Jun 20, 2024 13:51:32 GMT -6
I think the problem is we all can agree the in-line boosters are a handy save your ass problem solver, but as far as an essential part of the signal chain, if you need one re think the signal chain. I’ll admit to constantly considering a pair for the go bag, because I know just like that little Aphex 1/2 rack -10 to +4 interface in the rack at some point it’s going to save my ass. Eh. I often use Triton FETheads on my Samar ribbons and low output dynamics on very quiet sources, and I have many very high quality preamps. It definitely helps the noise floor and doesn't mess up the sound. Or- You have a 4 channel pre with universal phantom power, and you want to use the preamps on both condensers and ribbons... Perfect scenario to have some in line boosters/protection. |
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Post by hadaja on Jun 20, 2024 19:07:38 GMT -6
Does this seem a little comical +/- 12db for its frequency response on the Warm Audio 44? Attachments:
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Post by andersmv on Jun 20, 2024 20:53:54 GMT -6
Does this seem a little comical +/- 12db for its frequency response on the Warm Audio 44? I'm a millionaire, +/- $999,900... |
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,083
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Post by ericn on Jun 21, 2024 15:55:38 GMT -6
Does this seem a little comical +/- 12db for its frequency response on the Warm Audio 44? On a mic 20-20K not as insane as you might think. I would suspect the actual graph wouldn’t look that bad but the -12 is sort of the astrix next to the 20-20K. |
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. I wish I had the money right not to grab one and find out...
