Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Heil PR-40

I purchased a used Heil PR-40 from an eBay seller to try it out and consider whether I wanted to get a couple of them in my home studio. It's a nicely-designed mic; the sound seems quite impressive; I'll test it out on a podcast. But to set it up properly, I'll need a boom, a shock mount, and a pop filter. The problem with all that is that it's approximately a $300 mic. But the shock mount costs another $100, the boom costs $120, a base for the boom costs $30, and a pop filter that mounts on the shock mount costs about $60. So there you have it -- a $300 microphone where setting it up costs as much or more than the microphone. If it works out well for podcasts, I'm considering a whole second mic and boom so I can do live broadcast-style conversations easier... but at $600 for the setup I may want to wait on that. I should clarify -- I don't believe the prices for these parts are actually that far out of line. It isn't like Neuman's $80 plastic thread adapter. But it's still a little daunting.