Sceptic Reviews (TM, sort of).

A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.

Gear

This page sums up some impressions from all sorts of sound kit. Full reviews are also posted here. Don't expect cheery wishy-washy reviews, it's all fair and above board.

Akai LPK-25

4/5

A small 25-key USB-MIDI keyboard, this has lasted longer than a Korg Nanokey(-1) which the kids destroyed by banging on its keys. The nice feature is a hardware arpeggiator. The keys have a mini-piano feel and travel distance. There is, of course, an octave switch by means of two buttons, and a sustain button which is an oddity (never used, as it's activated by taking a hand off keys).
Advantages: fits in a backpack. Works with no drivers whatsoever with almost any computer nowadays (it's a bog-standard USB-MIDI device).
Flaws: the keys are a bit hard. One of them had once gone sticking and missing low-velocity notes, but it's recovered after some harder playing. Key action is a tad too deep for really fast playing. Paint's awful and has all but peeled off.

Akai LPD-8

3/5

Akai's take on both the drumpad and the tweaky knobs. The pads are noticeably insensitive and only achieve full/middle velocity when hit a tad too hard. Even for low velocity, they have to be hit with a conscious effort. The knobs are knobby and tweakish.
Advantages: drumpads and knobs, all-in-one.
Flaws: the pads are too hard. The whole thing itself is a bit too fragile. And yes, the paint's awful again and peels off easily.

AKG D-11

4/5

Most people overlook this as it's treated as a cheap sidekick to the versatile D-112, but the D-11 is actually a rather good microphone, especially on bassier toms. It lacks the very low range and nice lag of the D-112, but it sounds lean and clear, while being able to pick up low midrange and bass fairly accurately. This will get picked anytime over the likes of SM57, as it's just plain superior.
Advantages: it's a bass instrument microphone.
Flaws: none really, unless you're hell-bent on recording trebley stuff with this.

AKG D-40

4/5

The very underrated instrument microphone from AKG, the D-40 is ideal for drums, small percussion, guitars, guitar cabs and just about any instrument. It's a smallish microphone, easily placed. Its only flaw is low impedance (200 ohm), which gives it that lack of focus in the treble/high midrange, but overall this is a superb microphone. The low impedance flaw can be fixed with an impedance adapter, though look out for the kind of resistors used, metal film is ideal to avoid colouration/warmth drain. This microphone is way superior to SM57, though it wouldn't be wise to use it for voice.
Advantages: versatile instrument microphone, one of the best for drums and guitar cabs. It even works for tracking bass guitar.
Flaws: low-impedance. Pad the silly thing at the preamp or with an adapter to get condenser-style resolution. Cheapish build (that "metal" ring really is painted plastic).

AKG D-112

4/5

The big "sail" microphone from AKG, this is not only a standard bass kick microphone, it's also a pretty good dynamic microphone overall. Useful for bassier vocals (and really any vocals in a pinch), trombones, tubas, toms, anything big that moves a lot of air.
Advantages: it's a bass instrument microphone with surprisingly good high midrange and treble resolution, which is why it tends to get contour dimensions right.
Flaws: none, except for a slightly artificial tone. But then you'll be EQing bass drums anyway...

AKG GHS-1

4/5

Not too bad, a headset based on the K-81, but with none of the harsh aggressiveness of the K-81. It's a bit of a miracle how they managed it. Nevertheless, it does have a couple design flaws: one is the fixed microphone boom which is staring front/right. Aside from picking up one's voice, it also happily picks up whatever's in front of one, including stuff like PC noise and speakers. Luckily (or not, if you're in the middle of a game), the microphone can be switched off. The 2nd design flaw is the pads. AKG really has a fixation with obnoxiously high-puffed pads, eating midrange detail and killing off driver power. That can be fixed by pulling the (absurdly huge) foam doughnuts out. The pads also have a tad too small soundholes. On the other hand, the pads are velour, not plastic. They really have to be bigger, otherwise bass and low midrange is bled off.
Advantages: it's a good headset, though it could be better. It does get a fairly natural tone on game SFX.
Flaws: puffed pads with small holes. Awful fixed microphone boom means you're pretty much stuck with any machine and ambient noise making its way into conversation.

AKG HSD-171

4/5

A somewhat uncommon device which was an impulse buy at a sale, the HSD-171 is a dynamic headset based on K-171 (HSC-171 is the phantom condenser version). Surprisingly, the headphone part is less annoying than the K-271, which have that weird borderline treble/midrange mashup. The HSD-171 lacks that, it's got an overall neutral-response headphone part, although bass is a bit anemic/weak. The microphone is nothing special, it works for voiceover, but it is noticeably difficult to drive, most likely on purpose, to avoid clipping when several headset feeds are mixed together live.
HSD-171 are one of those rare headphone models that are suitable for mixing, in fact they're pretty useful for the purpose as they're noticeably thicker/laggier than most headphones, and their frequency response is bass-light, meaning, you'll tend to boost bass to make it stand out more. Somewhat like average bookshelf speakers. The same likely applies to K-171.
Sound isolation is rather good for such small headphones.

Advantages: suitable for mixing. Good sound isolation.
Flaws: don't you bother trying this unless you own a professional mixer or sound interface with good, powerful microphone preamps and headphone amplifier. HSD-171 is utterly unfitting for a PC soundcard, as its high-impedance microphone was originally designed for studio use. Pads are also overstuffed, and require restuffing with plastic fibre to get a decent amount of bass and power, even with a better headphone amp.

AKG K-81 and AKG K-518LE

5/5 (modded) and 2/5 (stock)

Mixed feelings about this. The stock model is hopelessly barmy and bassy, until the foamies are taken out of pads, that is. And then they're still harsh and unstable. Lack of damping makes them overshoot and blur, even in the midrange. Somehow they're very aggressive (stupid-aggressive) until buffered. The K-518 are much the same thing, albeit with some fixes (and an awfully short cable, 80 cm.), basically it's version two. Modified they can sing and be wonderfully transparent, the drivers do have potential. But it takes a lot of damping, a recable, and capacitor buffering to achieve the good sound.
Avoid overdriving the K-81/K-518 with a lot of powerful bass as at least in the K-81 the drivers are glued to deep-moving coils. Too much slow power, and the coil may snap off the driver, leaving a dull and weak sound as result.
Advantages: good modding platform.
Flaws: absolutely awful stock - boombox-on-ears, the closest you can get to a subwoofer car with headphones, except perhaps K-181 with their "big club" switch. Mud, mud, and barminess, dynamics are never defined, transient intermodulation distortion aplenty. Drivers still a tad too woolly when modded.

AKG K-240 Studio

4/5

One of the recent models in the K-240 range, frankly, these are in some ways inferior to their high-impedance counterparts. Still, they're mighty fine for tracking, as they give a better note contrast due to their tweaked frequency response. The K-240, as all serious AKG headphones, improve a lot with a good shielded recable.

AKG K-271 Studio

3/5

Never really liked, there's something queer about their melancholic tonality and weird borderline midrange/treble messiness. They just seem to lump and mix high midrange and treble together, for a strange crammed-space sound. They also lack a bit of bass, though much less than you'd think from the frequency response graph. Good isolation though.

AKG Perception 170

2/5

A cheap small condenser, this microphone is nothing special at best, and mediocre/cold at worst. In spite of its bias towards trebliness, the P. 170 also is thick when it comes to dynamics, failing to achieve the resolution necessary to get accurate chromatic detail as an example. The only good application is possibly as a 2nd acoustic guitar (ambient) microphone. Overall it's a waste of money.

Audio-Technica ATH-M2X

5/5 (modded)

The pleasant surprise, as modded these cheap headphones are wonderfully transparent and stable, most likely the drivers are reused in other models. It takes a recable and damping to achieve this, as the stock build is an unstable design, with drivers rocking back and forth with the cups, thus losing a lot of dynamic detail.

Audio-Technica ATH-M40

5/5

These were chosen over the ATH-M50 as they were sold for half as much. They'd never disappointed. Clean and transparent when modded, and not too bad stock, either. Large, spacious soundstage. On a good microphone feed they're not too far away from just listening with one's ears. They're one of the few modern headphone models that are buffered: there're ceramic caps in series with drivers.
Advantages: very precise, high dynamic range and therefore they catch lots of noise other headphones won't even detect.
Flaws: very cold sound until burnt-in (two weeks or so), absolutely awful headband and cup pleather wrap which starts peeling off after a while.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50

5/5

The only thing that's bad about these is the price, overinflated for a piece of pro kit really. They've a warmish yet accurate sound, 45-mm. drivers inside. Give them some shielded SPC wiring and they'll be marvellous, though reassembling the headband is a nightmare.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50X

4/5

A-T's update to the ATH-M50, it's all much the same, except bassier, somewhat harsher, harder-hitting, and smaller, which is a disappointment as it means there's less space inside the cups for mods and overall worse acoustics with a tighter/more strained sound (which they show). Detachable cable is also a bit of a bummer as until there're compatible miniplugs on sale they'll be difficult to recable.

Boss SD-1

3/5

Roland division's "Super-Overdrive" guitar effect pedal. Nothing "super" about it really, it's actually a bit flat for any serious overdrive - even a bass player said "it needs more drive". Surprisingly it works as a synth overdrive effect, and it would've been even better if it had a deeper noise floor, as the hiss really gets through in quiet passages.

Boss HM-3

4/5

"Hypermetal-3". It's a typical chuggy metal distortion effect. It's slightly more lean than Marshall Jackhammer, but it's also not as smooth/full-bodied. It's a bit more aggressive with more transistor bite, if you've heard the likes of Sepultura, that's what it sounds like, more or less. It's a darker yet leaner kind of powerful distortion. It does what it says, though again the name is a bit of an exaggeration, as it's more of a "standard metal" distortion rather than too much of it.

CAD-12

3/5

Cheap Shure SV100 copy. All the funnier given that it's a rebranded Superlux microphone, side-by-side with an SV100 they look similar, but the capsule of the CAD-12 has worse damping, so it gets that cheap "loose midrange/harsh treble" sound. It is cured by an impedance adapter or preamp padding, sure enough. The sound it gives without boosted impedance is a kind of a strained-yet-unfocused cheap impression.

Danelectro Fabflange

3/5

Not too bad, a cheap flanger effect. It works, especially inserted before distortion/OD. It's ever so slightly poisonous and weak, though what'd you expect from a cheap pedal?

Epiphone G-310

4/5

Issues: cheap cable socket, switch, and just about everything else is designed to look good in the store but rattle and misfire with a little age. Chinese make. Thick neck isn't exactly comfortable for chording.
The G-310 is a 1967-style cheap SG. Some say it's one of the best metal guitars, and it's a fair claim. The SG's the opposite to Stratocaster: where the Strat is quick, mellow, twangy, airy and trebley, the SG is dark, solid, smooth, and more on the slower side (humbuckers have that quality, single coils are quicker). It can do treble, sure enough, but even then it'll be more of a smooth, quiet metallic treble rather than the airy twang of a Strat. Clean this has that automatic "goth guitar" sound, with a touch of medieval lute about it: smooth, darkish and it can be made large and spacious/lush with the right effects (chorus/delay). Plug the G-310 into a good distortion/OD effect (one of the many Boss metal pedals or Marshall Jackhammer or Guv'nor) and it'll show what it does best: Sabbath-style or Sepultura-style dark, lush growl. Of course this requires tuning lower, to C or even B, but with the right strings (.12 gauge or thicker) and a locking nut that's easy. Some people (of the Strat camp, no doubt) will say the tone is muddy. It isn't, it's smooth really. Clean this cheap SG can do a passable imitation of a Celtic harp or medieval mandolin. This guitar begs for slow, munching chords and power soloing. Not that you can't play fast on it.
The issues are all fixable with good spare parts, and a locking nut is about the first thing that's to be installed (Tony Iommi always installed a locking nut on his SGs and tuned low).
Overall it's a rather useful guitar, though of course everything depends on individual style. A Stratocaster might be more versatile in some ways, but the thick, a bit dry sound of an overdriven SG is difficult to match with anything else. A second guitar is always good too, a Strat-style guitar and an SG are a good pairing that just about covers any kind of sound there is. Some would say a Les Paul is more like it, but the Les Paul has a laggier, twangy, thicker sound, which may not work too well for more dynamic music (Bill Steer from Carcass disagrees though).
Pro: it's a cheapish SG guitar with a really dark tone. Easy to play, as long as it's not too many chords.
Contra: not the best thing for recording unless modded (think body damping, electronics shielding, swapping the barmy plastic nut for a metal locking one, etc.). Really cheap build quality (pots and cable socket and tone switch going loose).

Korg Nanopad-2

4/5

It's a nice multi-scene USB-MIDI drumpad, but it does suffer of some cheapness. Its modulation pad has the feel (and erratic responsiveness) of a carton box. The drumpads though are better than those on the LPD-8.

Korg Nanokontrol-2

4/5

It's a useful thing, as in addition to a bucketload of sliders, buttons, and knobs it also has transport controls. So it works for recording/playback control. But again it suffers from a somewhat cheap build as the sliders like to fall off their fader levers, having nothing to hold them in place mechanically.
Advantages: lots of buttons, faders, and knobs, all assignable to MIDI CCs. Transport controls also assignable to MIDI CCs.
Flaws: cheap build. Fader sliders had to be glued to prevent falloff.

KRK RP6 G2 SE

4/5

KRK is a division of Gibson. Surprise, surprise. Anyway, overall these are decent inexpensive monitor speakers. The biggest issue is actually them being too good: they're bi-amplified, unlike most people's speakers, so a lot of what sounds smooth on consumer gear, will sound quick on the RP6, and a lot of what sounds quick on the RP6 can end up sounding slow (or even getting lost) on consumer kit. Balanced connection (XLR and TRS socket), of course, only adds up to the difference, but they've got RCA sockets too. Overall, the RP6 G2 are quick and lean; their only slight flaw is a fairly hollow dynamic range of tweeter amps. Build quality can also be a bit of an issue, as these are made in China and QC sometimes is what you'd expect it to be. One of the speakers' LED nameplate glows less than the other's, and it also had a slightly loose tweeter that had to be reattached (shipping damage suspected).
Advantages: fairly decent, fairly defined sound at a low price.
Flaws: limited-range tweeter amp. Chinese quality control (or "quality control" in some cases).

Marshall MG-15CDF

4/5

Marshall's cheap 15-W guitar amp. They might've left the overdrive out of it altogether, as it's highpassed and generally useless/weak. The only useful controls, other than volume, are the three tone knobs. Cheap build. Plastic(!) guitar socket which is prone to unscrewing itself off. Nondescript, but rather good, Marshall 8-inch guitar speaker. This amp can, nevertheless, sing when placed on resonant floor, and it sounds really great in a stone room. It's fairly cheap (more so when sold used) and it works for playing guitar at home.
Advantages: Marshall amp on the cheap. Decent sound (at this price anyway).
Flaws: transistor harshness in the treble/dynamics, cheapish build, overdrive effect is a mockery.

Marshall Jackhammer

5/5

Must-have. This is the pedal for metal. Both overdrive and distortion, this gives a nice, chunky, smooth, powerful OD or distortion. Works perfectly fine for Sabbath-style as well as modern fast metal, hard rock, whatnot. What you'd expect from a really good Marshall head. Along with the Marshall Guv'nor, if you've got to have OD or distortion, this is just it.

MXL 440/441

2/5

Marshall's cheap condenser pair, large and small. Build quality is cheap, and both suffer from radio interference if the transmitter is close enough. The 440 is more vulnerable to radio, the 441 much less. There's a Neutrik radio-filter XLR plug that fixes this. It's not really worth spending money on this if you've got more to spend on decent kit, but the 441 can be a surprisingly decent small condenser, and the 440 works for when you absolutely need that large condenser dynamic lag but can't find the coin for the good ones. Overall the 440's got a bit strained, cheap, slow sound though. Not as clean/lush as the better, more expensive kit. The 441 is actually better than AKG Perception 170 tonally and in terms of dynamic finesse/resolution. Not too bad for the money altogether, all things considered.
The plastic clamp on the 440 support went loose (after not as much use, either), and it sounds like one of the caps in the 440 also went bad (it injects LF noise spikes now) - so eventually one can dump a tad too much extra money on stuff that shouldn't be broken in the first place, like an RFI filter XLR plug (+$25) and a new good-quality capacitor and a new LDC clamp. All of that adds up to at least $60, so forking out cash for a cheap-yet-decent LDC like AT2031 might've been better from the very start.

Rode NT5-MP

5/5

Another pair of microphones that get some flak for nothing, these are actually fairly detailed, quick and lively small condensers. They can pick up a very natural sound, and are quite sensitive. Looks like most people place them on plain copper wiring and record to low-res (44/48 KHz), which is simply a waste of the magnificent treble performance of NT5.

Rode NTG-1 4/5

The go-to standard videocamera microphone, this is not too great for serious music work due to its slight floppiness in the midrange and shouty mid-midrange (between 1400-2100 Hz). Dampen that range if you find that, say, cymbals recorded with NTG-1 stick out too much in a mix. Being hypercardioid, it works nicely when placed farther away from cymbals than regular studio condensers. That said, it can be a good microphone for certain instruments like maracas and cymbals and anything chromatic.

Sennheiser PX-100

4/5

Surprisingly, one of the few things of Senn make that aren't too bad, though they're still dryish- and darkish-sounding. Aside from a midrange dip which gives them a bit "small" sound sometimes, they've enough detail for anything. They can work fine with a goodie headphone amp (anything in a mixer or sound interface), but they can sound a bit toyish out of portable players.

Sennheiser MD-421-II

2/5 NOT a favourite. This microphone, unlike its ancestor, is too loose and unfocused, suffering from poor damping. It was used only once at a radio performance, and it was never used again. Looks like the penchant for low impedance really has to do with companies pinching massive pennies off using less impedance wire in coils. And of course it's a nightmare for recording.

Shure SM57

3/5

The mediocre microphone that gets a lot of praise, some of it no doubt insincere. The SM57 is dull, has a nasty transformer that gives it a sort of a high-midrange/treble boost that can be honky/boring, and is insensitive. Its low sensitivity means a lot of background hiss when recording quieter instruments. Its main use for instruments is on really loud stuff like guitar cabs and drums. Some singers use it, and it's good for voiceover, but overall its ancient design means it's just plain inferior to most current instrument microphones. Combine with an impedance adapter or pad it at the preamp to get any decent detail out of this and kill off treble harshness/lack of definition.

Shure SM58

3/5

The "vocalist" version of SM57, this can give a sort of a streamlined not-too-trebley vocal feed that's certainly useful for mixing without EQ. Still, there're other vocal dynamic microphones out there, like the AKG D-5/D-7. The SM58 can be placed as a side snare microphone and used on drums and guitar cabs. Not too useful for anything else except vocals and voiceover, but many singers are used to it. The only difference between this and the SM57 is the detachable ball head. The author's own dislike for the SM58 is caused precisely by its trying to do lowpassing and EQ rather than letting the engineer do that (which the D-5 affords).

Shure SV100

4/5

It's actually sort of good. And it's cheap. The majority of $10-20 dynamic microphones clone either this or a similar design. The SV100 is Shure's $25 microphone, and it can sound good. When equalised. Properly. And on a decent preamp. It works for some instruments. When equalised. And placed right (read: close). Also voice, including VOIP. Not always good for singers though. A colleague says they are prone to feedback onstage too.

Vox Amplug - Classic Rock

4/5

Well, this is really curious as it's both an effect and a "guitar headphone amp" in one. It's a tiny box with 2 AAA batteries, tone/volume/gain controls, line input, headphone output, and a guitar plug. Very comfy for recording with a sound interface. It really is better to spend money on this little thing than on some fancy digital amp emulation plugin at the same price. Just running the guitar through software effects with a direct interface input always sounds off somehow, Amplug fixes this (mostly).
You may have to use a miniplug-plug cable or a miniplug-plug adapter with a mini-mini cable, but the big advantage here is, the Amplug may also be connected with anything that has a miniplug input or has RCA input with a mini-RCA or mini-mini cable. Any stereo or paltry DAP speakers/dock, even.
Pro: it nails that classic rock sound from the 1970s: Uriah Heep, Queen, whatnot. It's made in Japan. It's analogue. Let's not say that small size is such a big plus, as it plugs into a guitar, and that thing is rather large and only moderably portable.
Contra: the headphone amp part is weak. It actually *drops* volume when fed with an Apple Touch G4's player output. And that, on fairly efficient supra headphones. Sounds like an awfully cheap IC thrown onto the circuit board, and designed to use as little power as feasible.
There's also a "clean" sound option of sorts, basically you just dial the gain down for a cleaner sound, just like in a real amp. You can, also, plug it into a real guitar amp with an adapter cable (3.5 mm. to 6.3 mm.). Wire only one side of the 3.5 mm. plug or use a mono one.
The tone could be better too, the thing has a lowpass filter that's a tad too harsh - it'd sound better if it let more high frequencies through. A lowpass is necessary to properly emulate an amp speaker (they cut off around 5-6 KHz), but it'd have to be smoother and perhaps less severe. As it is it has a touch of unpleasant transistor dirty muffle about it.
The Amplug could get 5 stars (also if the lowpass took more care of emulating a real, laggy amp speaker), but as it is it's missing a goodie headphone amp. Most of the time with a sound interface or real amp it just works as a line driver, so the AAA batteries (rechargeable) seem to last forever.

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