New VS. Vintage Microphones - Which Are Better?

Here's the tenth video of a new weekly series showcasing the different microphones that I sell every week at colepicksvintage.com! If you aren't familiar with my business, I sell vintage microphones every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 8PM Central on my website.
This week's video highlights a Toshiba Type E Ribbon Microphone, a 60's Sennheiser MD421 Dynamic Microphone, and a 60's Shure 545 Dynamic Microphone. I'll be posting videos just like this one every Friday night, so subscribe to stay up to date on what's next!
For general inquires, microphone sales, and repair requests, visit colepicksvintage.com and fill out one of my contact forms.
Sections:
00:00 Introduction
00:09 Toshiba Type E
00:48 Toshiba Type E Electric
01:05 Shure SM57 Electric (Compared W/ Toshiba Type E)
01:20 Toshiba Type E Acoustic
01:37 Shure SM57 Acoustic (Compared W/ Toshiba Type E)
01:55 Sennheiser MD421
02:17 Sennheiser MD421 (Vintage) Acoustic
02:33 Sennheiser MD421 (New) Acoustic
02:48 Sennheiser MD421 (Vintage) Electric
03:02 Sennheiser MD421 (New) Electric
03:17 Shure 545
03:43 Shure 545 Acoustic
03:57 Shure SM57 Acoustic (Compared W/ Shure 545)
04:09 Shure 545 Electric
04:24 Shure SM57 Electric (Compared W/ Shure 545)
04:39 Outro

[@Arni142]

I love the idea of SM57 as a reference for other mics, please keep doing it (with the same mic)!

[@subtonic24]

The 545 sounds great! I recently got a new 545SD from Sweetwater and posted a short video comparing it to my SM57. The results are the exact same as the results in this video. More balanced midrange and a smoother extended top end than the SM57. I'd love to hear the 545SD vs a vintage 545 someday.

[@deathagoniesandscreams]

The toshiba sounded awesome. I have to say, the playing and tones were so good in this video it made the 57 seem perfectly usable in any mix.

[@earljohnson8851]

This channel is the absolute best! 🔥🔥🔥

[@miguelpessanha]

That Acoustic is the real winner!

[@overdrivekill7]

That matchless sounded great

[@sfn4702]

The 545 on the Princeton 😮❤

[@Rompler_Rocco]

This was awesome!! The comparisons really helped to spotlight some serious sonic beauty 👍👍💯

[@andrewwhitehouse1878]

I loved the Toshiba, huge body and natural sound, the sm57 was tinny and harsh, contrary to popular opinion I’ve never liked the sm57 for guitars.. but people dig them and get good sounds so personal preference I guess!! might consider grabbing a Toshiba as I’d been on the fence about them in the past! Thanks Cole!

[@matthewg7069]

The Toshiba does sound amazing, but the SM57 shines in a dense mix where you have a bass guitar, rhythm guitar etc. Ideal world would be a blend of the 2, bringing in the Toshiba in quieter sections of music to bring some body to the sound.

[@andrewwhitehouse1878]

@ totally, a blend for sections would be awesome. The 57 is classic for a reason 🤙

[@thomasstone1363]

Another excellent video. Thank you!

[@intheblink]

I’ve wanted vintage 545 for some time. A bit paranoid about being sold a fake, though.

[@stupendousmusic4190]

Love the Toshiba Why didn't yo just compare the vintage 545 with a new 545? They still make them. I even own one myself.

[@colepicksvintage]

I would have if I had one!

[@stupendousmusic4190]

@@colepicksvintage That's very easy to remedy. Only 100 bucks.

[@Jopvanbladel]

Wow, what acoustic guitar are you using there? Cheers

[@colepicksvintage]

It’s a 1957 Gibson LG-3!

[@h.c.7799]

what do you consider a “higher quality parts back in the days”? The current production accuracy and consistency in quality is several orders of magnitude higher than back in the 60s. They might’ve been high-quality then, but many are aged, worn out or disintegrated now. vintage sound is only now. I very much like your channel and your comparisons, but I’m concerned about this “good old days” language, as if there were some magic to it. There are good mics and bad mics today as there were now in the good ol’ days with the addition that most of the old microphones became worse over time, and do no longer meet the specs, they were originally designed for

[@colepicksvintage]

I’d have to disagree here! Back in the 40’s - 60’s the top engineers in the world were designing microphones for the broadcasting industry. I study the internals of both new and old microphones on a daily basis, and modern microphones don’t come close to the quality of what used to be made. Most ribbon microphones made today use two simple block style neodymium magnets, are assembled in China, and have low quality transformers. In the old days, each microphone had cast alnico magnets with a very specific structure for each microphone and way more engineering than 90% of what I see today. Also, today your standard microphones from Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, etc. are all made in a factory in China with the lowest quality parts possible because in general these companies just care about profit due to the industry being so much smaller than it used to be. If a “vintage” microphone was well taken care of over the years (as many have been) it will still today far exceed the quality and sound of most modern microphones. There are exceptions, but most of the time the difference is clear.

[@i.shadrin]

Prefer sm57 and new md 421 over everything else in this comparison

[@h.c.7799]

New MD 421 sounded much richer on the cabinet than the old one.

[@pavelcollee-foley7997]

We already know he picks vintage.

[@alexbetabandido5881]

The 57 sounds better