Shure SM58 vs the SE Electronics V7X - a Head to Head Comparison

Affiliate links:
Shure SM58 - amzn.to/2W9mBNW
SE Electronics V7X - amzn.to/3gEBbqg
Gear Used in my Video:
Sony AX53 - amzn.to/2KrQ6YS
Manfrotto Tripod - amzn.to/2Wfl2y3
Falcon F7 Light - amzn.to/2IRXSej
Ulanzi VL49 - amzn.to/3oUcY23 and the RGB Version - amzn.to/34h5AG9
Manfrotto Mini Tripod - amzn.to/3mjJs43
Beachtek Preamplifier - amzn.to/2JY6kt6
Two dynamic microphones but they have a different polar pattern. The SM58 has a cardioid pattern and the V7X has a super-cardioid pattern.
Both have an excellent build. Both sound pretty good. The choice really comes down to which polar pattern you would prefer!

[@radu3g]

Apparently, my local music shop has V7x. Bought it, tested it, and I have to say that it sounds as detailed as a midrange condenser mic. I was avoiding them because of their low sensitivity, but this one is perfectly usable within half a meter away from the source.

[@iancraig]

A good dynamic microphone can be surprising. In the past I have actually used dynamic mics boomed above my head and not a single person has noticed on KZbin. As long as you have a preamp that is quiet, these microphones work really well and rather than worry about just the sound of them, I tried to use their superior rejection characteristics which is a major bonus in an untreated room. Micbooster.com make a lead that actually has a preamp built into it which is superb. It uses the power supplied in the mic socket of the camera!!!

[@lensmanonline]

Interesting test Ian suprised how well they both rejected from the rear, and I also learnt something about stage setups. Best wishes stay safe Jon.

[@thegreatsiberianitch]

Informative video!! Thanks!

[@benoittissier58]

More than a product review, very interesting, thanks 👍

[@SaintGabriel111]

Thank you, Ian! Very informative!

[@iancraig]

Thank you, Gaudelier for watching.

[@Mr_Web]

Thank you so much for showing us how these work when boomed 👍

[@iancraig]

OK David. It’s you who got me doing it ..... even with a dynamic! They’re not really designed for booming and bass recedes quite a bit, but can be used if you have nothing else around with you. Don’t tell anyone ..... but I had to use the V7x as a shotgun mic once because I had nothing else with me at the time. No one noticed. I EQ’d it to sound fuller and match the other stuff in that video. Just one of those things!! I test mics in untreated rooms because that is how most people end up using them. Getting a mic to sound good in a treated room or a sound booth is a luxury that most of us don’t have and that is actually easier than what most of us are doing. When out and about, you need a mic for that job which is why pro film crews use boom operators ..... those guys work in many different environments and are experts at choosing the right mic for each occasion and room. However, a loner like me or most other videographers don’t have that luxury so choosing a mic is quite hard if you can only hear them in treated rooms and studios. That’s the ‘theoretical’ sound that you could achieve, but never will unless you treat your front room or something!! Imagine putting up a sound booth in your house ..... the wife would love that! Also, if I’m honest, I really don’t like the ‘look’ of a video in a sound booth. We’re dealing with ‘sight and sound’ and quite often, sound people completely disregard the ‘look’ of videos for sound, which is something that you would do for radio, but not really for video. Some hate seeing a mic in video, but they don’t mind the look of a soundbooth! I don’t like soundbooths in videos but the wife wouldn’t let me sound treat our front room either!! At least she wouldn’t be happy......

[@Mr_Web]

@@iancraig That's why we love your videos so much Ian, because you show us how these mics sound like in untreated environments even in your bathroom once if I remember well 😂 Let's face it, any mic would sound good in a sound booth but that doesn't really represent real life situations where we will most likely use these

[@iancraig]

Absolutely David. That’s the aim of my channel. To show gear in actual videoing environments.

[@bienestarciudadano]

Gran comparativa. Excelente canal de KZbin. Saludos

[@iancraig]

Muchas gracias Antonio. ¿Usted me Entiende en ingles? ¿Pero no habla ingles? Me encanta España y Menorca. E visatado Menorca muchas cosas.

[@bienestarciudadano]

@@iancraig Gracias a usted lan. Le entiendo y me gusta la manera de expresarse. Saludos desde Málaga,

[@miminomimino6566]

OMG V7x sounds phenomenal. For the price it's unbeatable plus it has great rejection. BTW I think it sounds better than V7

[@iancraig]

They’re both very good mics.

[@BalamVic]

Gracias man!

[@iancraig]

De nada. ¿Eres de España si? (¿O Mexico?)

[@RedState420Esq]

Thank you for the boom examples! I’ve been thinking about trying it with my SM58 instead of my lavaliere mic. Considering removing the ball grill for this application

[@iancraig]

Since the sm58 has the same capsule as the 57, I imagine that the sound might produce a tad more in the treble. You will need a very quiet preamp!

[@RedState420Esq]

@@iancraig Thank you for the quick reply and generosity with your expertise. Though my ears aren’t trained nor aged well, the Podtrak P4 from Zoom seems to have fairly quiet preamp. I use Audacity’s default noise reduction. I’m concerned about (a) reflections and (b) loss of bass in my voice. But won’t know until I test!

[@iancraig]

Funnily enough, I did a test for a KZbin video I’ll soon be putting out with the sm57 outside, held at waist level, EQ’d to bring the bass back, and a stereo background made by using the sm57 to record each element separately and EQ’d. All of the soundtracks were recorded direct into an Osmo Action would you believe? I have a lead from Micbooster.com that acts as a preamp from plug in power. It works really well. The sm57 comes out really well in the mix. Bass does indeed drop away, but it can be EQ’d back. It’s still there.

[@RedState420Esq]

@@iancraig Sounds like fun - looking forward to the video!

[@lee8org]

Great review. ...V7X was the winner for me ......It would have been to included some even cheaper option like Behringer XM8500 or XM1800S

[@iancraig]

The XM8500 is pretty subdued in the treble by comparison tbh.

[@laurengoldsings]

Really informative thanks! I’m new to performing and have been told I need to sing with the SM58 right up against my mouth. Is that true? And is there a mic I could use where this isn’t the case? Perhaps this is what you meant by the booming? Thanks!

[@iancraig]

Hi Lauren. Booming is when you have the mic suspended above you so that it’s out of shot. Not used this way for singing. More for speech on video where you don’t want to see the mic. I am a retired musician and used to use the sm58 a lot, but another you might like to check out is the sm57. I used to change between the two of them live on stage because the sm57 has more of a treble bite than the sm58. The 58 is smooth and warm where the 57 has more grit, so it depended very much on what I was singing. As far as distance goes, I prefer to have the mic about 6 inches to a foot back, depending on how loud I’m singing. Putting the mic right on your mouth makes it very bassy but engineers like you to do that kind of thing live on stage, so they can get the pickup gain turned down and pick up less of the band. Not necessarily for best sound. They alter the bass on their input then, so bass is reduced. So for gritty, shouty stuff... sm57. Warm melodic stuff ...sm58 Clean recording ....about 6 inches away On stage .... on top of the mic. Funnily enough, I’m just about to make a video on the sm57!

[@laurengoldsings]

@@iancraig thanks I’ll be sure to check out the next video then! I sing soul music but I tend to sing rather loud! Interesting what you say about the set up, should I be demanding then and just have the mic where I want it and make sure the gain is adjusted accordingly?

[@iancraig]

Live you might want it very close. That helps stop feedback. Then back off the bass a little to lose a little 'proximity effect'. (Fat bass on your voice) Recording .... further back. Less bass laden and raise the gain a touch. Or use a large diaphragm condenser mic which is even better. As a singer, you will need to learn the mic characteristics and use them with distance from your mouth and volume that you sing at. Once you choose your mics, it's best to stick with them so you perform as best as you can using their strengths. Generally, the engineers should adjust gain for you to be comfortable singing. Don't be pushed by them or you will change the way that you sing!

[@MorriceMike]

Nice and informative, but Is it worth mentioning that the se V7x is designed more for instrument use, and the se v7 is intended more for vocal

[@iancraig]

I guess so, but many microphones are designed for instruments that are used for voice. For instance, all pencil mics. This one has a more extended range than the V7 which is why they say that it is designed for instruments, whereas the vocal vesrion is slightly more restricted in range. The V7x gives slightly more top end and bass so I guess, if you have a boomy voice, then you might want to cut the bass, but actually, large diaphragm condensers give a lot of bass too .... I often wonder what ‘designed’ for instruments means. I guess ‘designed for voice’ means ‘restricted range? Personally, I prefer the V7x on stage for vocals as well as for spoken voice tbh.

[@MorriceMike]

@@iancraig I agree, just thought it worth a mention though...have just bought an s7, hasn't arrived yet, hoping it's ok for me

[@iancraig]

Mike, have you bought a v7 or an SE Electronics S7? The V7 is similar to the 7X, just with less bass weight. For voice, that probably wouldn’t matter too much, but I am puzzled why they produced the 7 and then the 7X.

[@thegreatsiberianitch]

@@iancraig i think its smart marketing. Make a buzz with the V7, "for vocals"... id imagine "vocal" mics are way more popular and marketable than "instrument" mics, more podcasts and vocalists than recordists in the world... I guess cause most everybody has a mouth, lol... Then if it's popular, release the 7x so it can ride and extend the buzz of the V7... more sales, longer exposure of the sE brand with less money spent on promotion. Also if the 7x was released 1st, or on it's own, I bet it would have been a sleeper mic like the audio technica atm650 or the audix i5, good mics but nowhere near as ubiquitous as the 57 or 58... Idk, it makes me wonder if it was a happy accident or if it was done with that intent in mind.

[@AlexD12345]

Top notch comparison! Thank you. Yet SM 58 has more mellow, well rounded/polished/balanced sound. V7x, on the other hand, sounds too harsh with lots of unpleasant/irritating transients and sibilants. Unless you heavily EQ, it does not offer good service to your voice. A side note - I am not a fan boy of Shure, but this time it just sounds way better than V7x. Sorry.

[@iancraig]

Hi Alex. Nothing to be sorry about! I don’t take microphone sound personally!! They’re just mics. For me, this was just an experiment with a video editor. ;) The difference in sound surprised me actually. Then I wondered whether it’s because I know the sound of the sm58 so well. That was the mic I performed with a long, long time ago, in another galaxy. The big difference for stage people is the muddiness of the SM58 when very close to your mouth. The V7x cuts through bands better used that way because it has more top end and is less fat sounding. Most live singers hold the mic pretty close to avoid feedback and get a loud output. With mic comparisons, I tend to look for the differences more than listen to just the sound. You can use those differences to your advantage. Used the way I’m using them (a bit further away) to speak into gives a more ‘even, airy’ sound but the bass starts to recede in dynamics when you do that. Certainly when ‘boomed’ above you because basically, dynamics are designed to be used close up. If you’re a singer, you get instant sound montoring from your stage speakers and so you easily judge how far away to hold the mic instantly in order to control the bass from what you get from the foldback speakers. Not so easy with a camera. Boom mics tend to sound a bit too fat close up. (Like the pencil mics I’ve been showing recently) However, that bass compensates for distance when on a boom so they sound more ‘present’. One stark example of that is in my video on the Oktava MK012. The hyper-cardioid capsule is designed to be boomed and boy, does it stand out when used that way? Close up, it’s a bit muddy. With mics, once you understand applications that they’re designed for, you can start to use them for their strengths rather than their weaknesses but for this video, I’m demoing them for KZbinrs who want to just capture speech on a video. Had I have sung with a backing having the mics close up, you may well have reversed what you thought. So in my mind, one is no better than the other. Both have extremely low noise and rejection with just a different contour to the sound for different applications. That’s why you see many American politicians speaking into a shure sm57. (Almost same as an sm58) The extra mid bass that the Shures give works in their favour at a foot or two away, which is how I use them. On stage, I would prefer the V7x for that extra bite. In any case, my channel is not about testing mics in a sound treated room or a sound booth. It’s about how mics work in real rooms because that’s the way that the majority of people use mics other than professionals, who need the best in sound for recordings.... we just want to capture reasonable speech in an untreated room so my videos are made for those people rather than a theoretical test, showing off a mic at its best. So the way that I am using the mics may well bias what you think to one mic but they both have different uses. In my opinion, no one mic wins overall unless the use of that mic is important and in this case, for speech captured from a foot or so away, I agree that the Shure gives more body to the sound, but some people do actually prefer more top end as well! Can’t please everyone I guess. Oh for the perfect mic (if ever there was one) ............ ;)

[@AlexD12345]

@@iancraig 👍👍👍

[@heilagr8062]

Unfortunately sm 58 is time to retire.

[@iancraig]

Why? Just because it was designed a long time ago? It’s still one of the most widely used vocal mics on stage…..

[@heilagr8062]

@@iancraig Perhaps you are right. He just let me down and I wrote out of emotion.

[@donvittoriosierra]

The SE looks and sounds beautiful

[@iancraig]

Hi Don. It’s surprising how different they sound. I know that the SE7 is used these days by quite a few well known singers for live work. Probably because it cuts through a heap of sound more easily than the shure, plus it’s a super-cardioid. It is also less fat sounding when held close to the mouth so you get less feedback and more volume on stage.

[@donvittoriosierra]

@@iancraig The se7 has heft and does the low end of the voice plus highs are sweet. The sm58 sounds light yet boxy in comparison

[@iancraig]

Yes, the Shure is a more 'contained' sound.

[@donvittoriosierra]

I also looked at other videos besides this one and yours just put the nail on the coffin so far as sm58 vs sev7x is concerned.

[@larrycaraballo1747]

SE v7 is great

[@iancraig]

It really is a great alternative to the Shures!

[@civilfieldengineer]

Hello Sir, Good Morning, My Name is Deol And I'm from India. I am a complete beginner. I want to record my written poetry professionally. Please Suggest me audio interface and dynamic mic. Which gives me professional level quality. Because my room is not sound proof. My total budget is 300 dollars. Tell me such a setup that I will not have to regret buying. Because I have added money very hard.

[@iancraig]

The dynamic mic I use the most is a Shure sm57.

[@jerryadams5487]

They both are $99