I'm not thrilled with this mic for vocals but I do like the sound I get on acoustic guitars with it. A little compression (NO EQ) and I get a sound that I'm quite happy with. Even if you only use it for acoustic guitars its worth picking one up.

When I first began to setup and buy the basics for my home studio, I wanted something better than the ordinary dynamic microphone. You know, the ones that look like and ice cream cone? I did about a few months research and came to the conclusion that Audio-Technica ranked between the 1st or 2nd place on most review websites. Plus Audio-Technica AT2020 being one of the best for its price range. The first Large Diaphragm Condenser I bought was the Audio-Technica AT2020 (Do not forget to buy something for the 48v phantom power that it requires. I bought a Peavey PV8 mixer.) With just a few singing tones, I was immediately amazed at the sound quality! I had to get my old mic (dynamic microphone) and do a A/B testing against the Audio-Technica AT2020 Large Diaphragm Condenser. No comparison to the generic microphones, yet... The Shure Model PE54 series 2 actually held some ground. The Shure microphone still sounded like a stage microphone and the Audio-Technica AT2020 Large Diaphragm Condenser sounded just like a Professional Studio! The Audio-Technica AT2020 Large Diaphragm Condenser is the best first step investment to the Home Studio setup when you are on a budget. I have just bought a Audio-Technica AT2050 as a major upgrade to the Audio-Technica AT2020. The AT2050 sound quality is 10 times better than the AT2020, so if you have the cash I highly recommend immediately getting the AT2050. The AT2050 has much more flexibility in sound (I bought the AT2050 upgrade for the figure-8 mode, because it allowed a more sense room / air presence in some of my new songs)! AT2020 is the best first step I have ever made!

I'm no professional audio engineer, but I do have experience with a few dynamic mic's and the Mxl 990 was my first condenser mic. I must say it did live up to the hype.. I run it through a cheap Art tube preamp or either a behringer 802 and the results are pretty good... Keep up the good work AT.

A must for every Live sound mic box. I just replaced my 57's on Gtr cabs with these and use them on overheads as well with outstanding results and these are built tough. They are not 81's, 451's, 414's, U87's or TLM103's but they ROCK on stage. I run pro audio as a living, used about every highend, lowend, middle of the road mic, and these are worth every bit of the price.

Like the review title states, this bad boy is a swiss army knife. I've used it for recording my vocals, backup vocals, and even my drums and vocals for video broadcasting and I always get a really good sound. But to be perfectly honest, I haven't spent any time at all with other condenser mics, but I'm just throwing my 2 cents out there. Once I got this mic, my music took enormous leaps forward. You won't go wrong. Give it a shot.