the t.bone SC 1100

Very solid metal build, crystal clear sound. The switch for mic type is super usefull. Good for vocals, good room mic, and I even tried recording guitar amp with it. I am surprised with the sound quality, performance, and even the solid shock mount that comes with it. The carrying case is super estetic and nicely designed. The sound quality can be compared to some hi end microphones. Perfect for home studio, but also for a professional studio. This microphone is very sensitive and will pick up even the tiniest sounds, so you might want to isolate yourself from the computer and other unwanted sound sources if you use it for singing. Its a heavy and big mic for hi performance musicians and singers so you will need a good mic stand for it. Cheap mic stands wont do, and you dont want to drop this beauty on the floor by accident. I use it for vocals and together with my instrument microphones as a room mic, but you can also switch it to another mic type and record the back of your amp like you would normally do with a ribbon mic on an open guitar cabinet. Depending how close you are to the mic you might want a pop filter, but I didnt have any issue without and so if you use it for broadcast and want a mic a little further away then the pop filter wont be needed.

There's a little trick I do from time to time to compare different products. It's good fun and you can learn a lot. What I do is set up blind A/B comparisons and compare two or more products to see which one's better. I don't limit this activity to audio products - I do it with wines, cheeses, coffees and teas... even fabrics. Sometimes the results are really astonishing. If you can't tell the brand name of the thing you're listening to/tasting/feeling... then you have to decide your preference on what your senses are telling you.

Most of the time I do this test on audio products, though. I've done pre-amps, mics, reverbs, keyboards, snare drums...

I've actually done blind A/B testing with some other T.Bone mics - the MB75 and the MB85 - and the reviews are up here on the Thomann website.

Anyway, I've just finished doing my blind A/B test on this mic (the T.Bone SC-1100) and another (how shall I put this?) er... "very well known" large diaphragm condenser mic. I won't mention it by name, but you know which one it is.

Well, the T.Bone mic won. Yes it did. Admittedly, I only tried the A/B test on vocals, but after all that's mostly what I'll be using this mic for. It beat the other, much more famous, mic; not by a huge amount - it was close - but it definitely came out on top. This mic has a warmer, smoother and less "middly" sound than "the other one". It also responds better to plosives (although that's not really an issue for either mic if you use a pop shield). The output of this mic did seem to be slightly lower than the other one, but again that's not an issue when you have a nice clean pre-amp and can turn up the input gain (you wouldn't have to turn it up by much anyway).

And the most astonishing thing - given that this mic WON the blind A/B test - is the price. A quick calculation brigs this mic in at 5.3% of the cost of the other one. A TWENTIETH of the price!

This is why I hate blind A/B testing. You learn a lot. Sometimes you learn too much!

I'll probably still use the other mic for outside clients in the studio. It's by no means a bad mic! And that's the mic that clients expect to see when they come in to record a vocal session, so that's the one I'll use - especially given thatI've spent SO much money on it! But for recording my own vocals, and other instruments, I'm using the T.Bone SC-1100. It's a better sounding mic.

In fact I'm placing an order for another one right now. :-)

I’ve had the t.bone SC 1100 in my rig for a few weeks now, and I’m quite pleasantly surprised. The mic feels solid and substantial, and I appreciate that it comes with a nice aluminum case and shock mount out of the box. Its switchable polar patterns (cardioid, omni, figure-8) add a lot of flexibility, which is great when I switch between vocals, acoustic instruments, or ambient captures. In practice, it delivers a warm, rich tone without obvious harshness, though I do notice it leans a bit “scooped” in the mids when pushed—so placement and room treatment matter. It’s fairly sensitive, so I sometimes dial back gain to avoid noise or room reflections. All told, for its price bracket it gives a lot of performance per euro, and I’m happy to keep using it as part of my home studio toolkit.