I would say the SE8 sounded slightly more vivid and quicker on transients. Just when I would think the Neuman had a little bit of a more creamy mid range on piano, the SE8 comes along and matches it. In my opinion, with price, not being a factor or name, I’d say overall I prefer the sound of the SE8. Maybe put the money saved towards a decent pair of omnidirectional small diaphragms.

The sE8 has a slightly more scooped mids sound which in this case makes nearly every test sound just a hair better than the KM184 imo. I’m sure the KM184 is more accurate to the room; however the sE8 is doing what I would be EQing out of the km184 had I’d been processing any of these tracks out.

se8 on drum overhead had more low end or maybe you played the bass drum louder on that take. hard to tell. anyway. i think what most people will get from this video is that... while there ARE differences... they are pretty subtle. anybody out there saying KM184 "blows away" Se8 is just justifying why they spent so much on them. i think i'd rather have four Se8 than 1 KM184!

Your vids are awesome!! Keep going!!

Excellent video in all respects, thanks very much!

I honestly, barely heard a difference (Heard through my speakers in my studio). I'm definitely going for the SE. Neumann has lost their minds.

The SE8 has a bit more colour where the KM184 is very neutral. However based on price anyone on a tighter budget I would highly recommend the SE8 certainly not a a $450 difference!

for me the differences were especially noticeable with the acoustic guitar and the mandolin samples ! Here the Neumann sound just quite a bit better, more accurate, more vivid in a realistic way !!

Which one do you think is closer to the original sound of the instrument - amp ? Personally i <<feel>> something in the middle?

The neuman is dark and woody with subtle oak and raspberry overtones. The SE has a more rounded floral bouquet with hints of melon and vanilla overtones.

Awesome! Thanks!

That’s not ORTF.

@Jonathan Fegel - Thank you.

Great Demo Jon! I even like a 57 better for my voice than a 58.

Thank you!

Great playing! Both sound fantastic to me.

LOL Amazing , Thank you, I LOVED IT

Have you found a way to use midi with this set up?

Have anyone else noticed how it's always popular to like the most affordable product in comments? 😂😂😂

Great video! It's refreshing to hear a mic shootout on a variety of instruments, each of which is a nice sounding instrument and played with a beautiful musical feel. I thought the mics were very very similar

Great, enjoyable, video, BTW!

When I was shopping for small condenser mics for use in location recording of choirs, orchestras, concert (wind) bands, I was seeking the least bright sounding of the bunch and the SE 8’s won out by a not inconsiderable margin. High frequency harmonics generated by live, non-amplified instruments and voices can sound harsh in a digital recording and are almost impossible to remedy in post. The SE8 was the best in this regard of the many I compared and believe me, there is no loss in detail. Spend (some of) the $1k+ difference on a better microphone pre-amp or mixer. If I was still recording on open-reel analog tape, the situation might be different…

Just curious - did you have your sE first and then the Neumann’s?

No on will complain about the SE8 but KM184 is fuller.

Use a metronome. 😁

Great comparisons, but even though SDC, a voice comparison would also be useful.

Thank You, so useful!

So close, personally my ears preferred the Se mics. A matched set of the Neumanns are $1K more than the Se’s - how much of an increase in audio quality are you getting for that…? I would need to listen to this again and again on different monitors - but on first pass the Se’s ring true in my ears. Great comparison. Well done.

The very top end of the se8 sounds artificial to me and also like there is body missing in the mids. sE makes good stuff but the Neumann KM184 is STILL the small diaphragm condenser microphone all others are compared to, and it's NOT just because it says, "Neumann", on it. It is because the 184 is a very honest mic. Cool studio BTW! I really enjoyed the chicken pickin' tune you played on the electric!

My ears from M50x said KM184 is a litle bit clean than SE8. both is not very different in terms of sound. But in terms of budget I think that make our easy to decide. Sure, the sound was very clean that it was easy to mix.

I can here a difference even in this KZbin compressed video. The 184 sounds much better. The Se8 has much less detail sounds blurred and little focus. Good for the price tho

I thought se8 sounded a tad more recessed in the mids than the Neumann, but otherwise they were quite close! Excellent job!

Have a pair of both and they're both great mics! In a mix, I can't tell which SDC is on which instrument. Definitely prefer the 184s on the Uke.

Thanks so much. Very useful. SE8's easily the best bang for the buck. Nice to see at such a lower cost you are getting a decent product. In some cases each shined.

Great song and presentation!

Thanks for the test. I think you sound very honest and I agree with you final conclusion. I Personally would pick the S8 because I think it sounds a little sweeter to my ears. Also you can interchange capsules to make them omni and you also have a pad switch and HPF. Great job sir, I will watch more of your videos!.

I preferred the Se8’s in every instance. They had a “sweeter” sound to me.

Excellent comparison. I actually preferred the SE8 on the guitar and mando, but the one place the high end bump of the KM184, and maybe transients, stuck out (admittedly, old ears here) was on the drums, where you were tapping on the ride. Whether that would be a plus or minus might depend on the mix. Pretty well sold me on the SE8s. Thanks.

The piano sounds like it’s 100 years old

sE8 has softer transient. and I don't know why but sE 8 has more "natural" room sounding to me. especially piano and drum.

from experience I know that this mic placement for an A-B comparison is too close for guitar. Even at 2ft / 0.6m you can clearly hear the difference and one pair will sound worse than the other, even if they are all the same mics. Try it out - you'll be surprised.

184's make him sound like he plays better. Everything else is fixable.

Keep in mind that a pair of Klm184s is like 4 more expensive than a pair of sm8s

The KM184 are slightly better defined in the upper mids/low highs, more "open" I'd say - though this seems to even out a bit with higher sound pressure (drums). Impressive actually with the SE8 sounding so equal and rounded.

Klm 184 Is better for acoustic guitar

It sounds bad. You seem to be using bad cables. What recorder did you use?

The SE8s sound a bit 'woolly' to me.

SE8 has significantly better lows and slightly softer transients in the highs. The harder transients of the 184 probably translate to sharper detail. But that can easily be "too much" detail on aggressive sounding sources. For instance, the uke had some very harsh pick noise that sounded more soft and pleasant with the Se8. For the guitar cab, it felt like the KM184 was losing a lot of low end information, but some of that low end came back to life with the SE8. I disagree with one being "better" than the other. It's more of determining the specific application. Due to the better low end, the SE8 is probably better on a wider variety of sources. But on specific instruments where you want to maximize upper-mid and treble detail, the KM184 would probably be better. A good example is drum overheads. If you are close-micing the drums, you probably want the 184 because it will emphasize the cymbals slightly more while rolling off more of the low end information. But if all you have is overheads and a kick mic with maybe a snare mic, then you want the SE8 to capture more of the low end from the toms. My point is that statements like "this microphone is better" are very unhelpful and also untrue. Once you get into this level of quality, microphones are not simply better or worse. They are just more specialized to one application or another and it's a problem of finding which is best suited to the specific job and not which is "better".

Great Video Thanks

Both microphones sound quite similar - SE8 softer transient, KM clearer midrange.