Cascade VX-20

I review the vx20 rather than many of the other mics I have because its an especially good deal.

So many cheap condensers have some gotcha. Noise, off axis coloration, inability to take spl, big lumps and bumps in the response etc. Not the VX 20. Its a large diaphragm condenser, cardiod, side address. Its built well. Its my go-to mic for Male Vocal. Its less sparkle than my ksm32, but the evenness through the mids makes it a bargain for the price.

Bayview Pro Audio has these mics made for them, and basically gives them away in lieu of a deeper discount. I bought a preamp for about 400 dollars from them, which was about 25 over the lowest price I could have gotten somewhere else. Then I paid an extra 25 dollars to upgrade to the vx20 from the free mic I would have gotten with the purchase. So – I figure I have 50 bucks in it.

Its better than the very cheap Chinese condensers (MXL, Marshall), and at least on Par with the Studio Projects Mics. It’s a little bit noisy, but not bad really. Better than some, worse than some. Great vocal mic. It beats my c3000’s for detail and overall usefulness. So: a good deal - and in many applications you’d need a thousand dollar mic to get much better performance. It does not overload when I use it 2 feet from a snare. It does not have bad coloration in its off axis. With prices and performance like this you can afford a pair to use as overheads. Tedrank 4. Yes its cheap but it doesn’t act that way.

PS Its precursor, the Cascade M20, which I owned but then sold for 75 dollars, was significantly worse, and I had heard that the M20 was the exact same Mic (with a minor mod) as the ADK Area 51 – which sells for around 400. That’s the kind of data that would get adk upset – so if you happen to read this, email me with the correct data and I’ll print a retraction.