Behringer C-2 Studio Condenser Microphones (Pack of 2)

These mics get mixed reviews depending on users' expectations. Are these the best mics you'll buy? No. Can you buy better? Absolutely. Are they worth £40? Yes! If I'd spent £200 on these mics I'd have described them as noisy and disappointing, but these are not expensive high quality mics. They are budget mics, and as such they are great. I compared them to an AT835b (shotgun mic, worth much more), and for indoor use found them a good substitute with similar sensitivity. Size is the first thing that hits you, as they're look tiny at just 9.5cm long and 2cm wide. Outdoors, they're not so good as they have poor wind/pop rejection. They do have a little internal hiss if you wind the gain up, but they have a sensitivity of -41dBV, so you shouldn't need crazy amounts of gain, and the specs imply they are good for loud sources (up to an SPL of 140dB at 1kHz, 10dB more with the cut engaged - that's airshow loud). They are a little "toppy" above 10kHz, but you can EQ that out if necessary. I'm not disappointed with these. For the money you get a pair of functional mics, good for drums, guitar amps, crowd mics, and "off axis" speech (so your plosives don't pop the living daylights out of them) for indoor video (eg about 8 inches above and in front of a subject, out of shot).

Whilst I wouldn't say I was a professional music producer, after studying music tech at college I do feel confident in being able to determine whether something is of an acceptable quality for an enthusiast on a budget. I really do think these things are great. Getting two microphones for £45, I wasn't really sure what I was going to receive. Especially when I have used fairly expensive mics (nothing ridiculous costing, mainly mid range rode and shure microphones) at college and further at University. This was exacerbated when I opened the package to find that they are small, I mean really small. They are fairly heavy for their size and feel of nice quality in the hand with the aluminium finish. They come in a 'nice for the price' carry case that seems to be well padded to protect them well enough with all of the accessories and the mics themselves packing up into a small area, great for on the move recordings. Small note about the incidental pairing stand that they come with, I thought (quite possibly stupidly) that the stand would act as a table mount and hold the mics up. Whilst that is the case without xlr's attached, attached it topples over straight away. Not an issue as a stand is better practice anyway but thought id mention it. Having quickly set them up through my alesis io2 audio interface onto cubase I set about recording my acoustic guitar and vocals as well as just general sampling. They sound great, nice and clear free from distortion etc. Really excellent, especially considering the price point. They need a fair amount of gain from my alesis to get a decent signal through to cubase but once that's sorted they record acoustic guitars very well. For such a small diaphragm they do a good job of picking up low end, maybe too much so when it comes to vocals (probably just my untrained boomy voice haha) for my taste. I do plan to try them out recording a brass band and continue to use them as acoustic bedroom mics. Whilst im not going to lie and say these things are big boy killers (they really arent) they will do a brillinat job of semi professional music production, which in the end is exactly what i bought them for, for a fraction of the price of two Audio Technica Mics or other budget options.

I bought this in March 2024, and have had no complaints about the quality of the mic. As you would expect from a condenser microphone, it is extremely responsive, and to my ear certainly of excellent quality. One thing no-one had ever told me about though, is the sensitivity of condenser mics to low temperature and moisture - I had been storing it in a cold and sometimes slightly damp environment, and found that when I plugged it in to use it, there was a quite loud background noise. I now store it indoors and this problem has never recurred. It is supplied in a good quality padded case, along with a foam pop filter, and an alloy shock mount. The shock mount is the only thing that lets this microphone kit down - 21 months after purchase, the swivel mount just disintegrated. First of all the bolt broke (even though I hadn't attempted to tighten it for a long time), then one of the side pieces just broke off with very little force on it. So the mic itself is great for the price, and given this low price I would suggest that anyone buying one also invests in an aftermarket shock mount for when the supplied one falls apart!

I have been using Garageband on a Macbook Pro for just a few weeks now and wanted a mic that was going to give me better results than the on board mic of the macbook. I have tried to record acoustic instruments using the on board mic but results were not great. After looking around I wanted a mic that did not require phantom power as it would just add more expense purchasing a power supply. I opted for the Behringer C-1U as it was powered from the USB which is just very convenient for me. After reading other reviews about the low volume issues I was a little wary, however I have no issues with recording volume as I simply turned the mic input up in my audio settings to 90%. When recording my acoustic guitar from about 1 foot away the results were great and so much better than the on board mic, I tried a few vocals and again so much better than the on board mic. Agreed that there is a little hiss at the high level but nothing that cant be filtered out with software but this still gets 5 stars from me as I have used other mics in this price bracket and none even come close to the recording quality I get from this. *Update* After using this for over a mouth now I still have no issues with recording level. I have some noise as expected but noisegate in Garageband got rid of most of it, Here is a sample of the recording of acoustic guitar and vocals. Noisegate has only been applied to vocal tracks not the acoustic recording. [...]

Love the clarity of sound i get from these, little hum if you turn gain too high but that's expected might get another 2 for the guitars

This brand is astonishing value for money. I have bought other Behringer items. These mics come with a good protective carrying case and extra mounts. -10dB switched too! Recording of Gibson sj200 (strum) and a Martin OOO Koa (finger pic) were high fidelity! You could clearly hear my mistakes! Used the sound hole and 10th fret at c12" distance positioning (dual mounted on one stand). Obviously you need XLR cables and a phantom power recording apparatus. In my case a Zoom R16 with 2 phantom power channels (usable across 2 banks of 8 channels). Gain at about 7.5 and monitor channels flat. These are great value for money additions to your recording capabilities.

The mics are actually well made and the switches are definitely solid and not wobbly. Comes in a hard plastic case with foam inside, plus a plastic stereo bar and foam windscreen. The mics have a nice weight and would work best for something like drum overheads or in an XY setup for a guitar. Recording voice actually sounds really nice and warm, clarity is also good and generally sound good, however, you're not going to want to use these for anything other than loud instruments because these have a high level of noise, even when using high end recording gear. They are good for a budget pair of mics, but you'll need to do a lot of post to remove noise. Definitely not for quiet recordings, Foley or spoken word.

I recently bought a Behringer C-3 microphone ostensibly on the basis of the reviews at Amazon. I have not been disappointed and my band mates have also been very impressed. I bought it to try out as an affordable single mic solution with a small PA to re-inforce vocals in our acoustic string band. The first time out we found it re-inforced our whole sound, with very little in the way of feedback problems. We plugged it through a mic pre-amp/Phantom power unit (M-Audio 2 channel Audio-Buddy) and used a shock mount. We have also tried the mount included with the mic, which was fine and ideal for emergencies (who forgot the shock mount!). The sound reproduction with this set up is excellent - warm and realistic, which is just what we wanted, though a decent pre-amp is required. Another reason for buying this product is the pattern and filter switching, which were not available on a more expensive recording mic that we have tried. Here, the C-3 offers a good degree of flexibility, depending on the details of the situation we find ourselves in. The Behringer C-3 is well built and well presented, being complete with a bespoke mount and hard plastic foam lined case. It represents excellent value. The product came with an instruction manual in any language but English, so there's an opportunity to brush up on your Spanish or French. The English version is available here: [...]