AKG C 520 Headworn Condenser Microphone 

Comments about AKG C 520 Headworn Condenser Microphone:

Used a Crown CM-311A for years. Thought I'd try this less expensive AKG when the old Crown wore out. I'm a singing drummer and use a monitor for vocals. This mic doesn't have the gain-before-feedback that the Crown had. I will keep it as an emergency back-up, and will purchase another Crown as my main headset. It's not horrible, but it just doesn't work for me as a singing rock drummer.

Comments about AKG C 520 Headworn Condenser Microphone:

I am a drummer in a rock n' roll cover band. One of our two lead singers recently quit, and we needed help with supporting vocals for our remaining vocalist. I decided against a wireless system because at my price range, <200, there wasn't anything reliable. Didn't want to go the traditional SM58 on a boom either, because I've found that to get in my way before. The AKG has a solid reputation, so we'll see how it holds up over time.

Comments about AKG C 520 Headworn Condenser Microphone:

Fantastic tonal quality, mike is by the corner of your mouth so it does not pickup pops. Was delivered incredibly fast. I broke my Shure 3 days before a performance and the AKG arrived in time for show even shipped standard delivery!

Comments about AKG C 520 Headworn Condenser Microphone:

As a drummer who sings I have for many years just used a regular vocal mic on a boom stand. About two years ago I decided to start looking for a headworn mic because I always really disliked have a bulky mic/stand in my way. I purchased a 100 buck mic by audio/technica and it was ok....but just did not have the gain I wanted so I did some more research and ended up picking this AKG C520 which is a condensor mic and all I can say is it has gain out the wazoo! Much more comfortable with the over ear hooks. It keeps the mic secure and the flexible gooseneck lets you put the mic just where it is best for you. I have gigged actively for the past year with this one before writing this review and have had absolutely zero problems with this mic. I treat it delicately when setting up and when tearing down and it has never let me down. When and if it breaks from road wear I will be buying another one for sure. I would highly reccommend this product!

Comments about AKG C 520 Headworn Condenser Microphone:

I got this mic after doing comparisons between a whole lot of headset mics including the following:

DPA4066
TG-H54C beyer
HSP4 sennheiser
Shure WCM16 HC444 tonebone
HS70T line 6
Tbone HC95
Countryman E6 by Shure
WH20 and WH 30 by Shure
DPA4065 and DPA 4088
Shure beta 54
Roland DRhs5

In terms of performance and sound quality All the DPA mics I tested were utterly amazing and as good as it gets for headset mics, but they were a little outside of my price bracket. Comparing them to the AKG C520 they sounded slightly less coloured, very natural, but the AKC held up very well against them in terms of sound quality, maybe a slightly fatter sound on the AKG.

All of the Shure mics I tested sounded much thinner and scratchier than the AKG C520, they didn't have that rich warm sound I was after for my vocals. So they were out pretty much from start.

The Sennheiser and Beyer were nice mics, and had great sound, and compared favourably to the AKG. I could have chosen one of these but I liked the characteristics of the AKG a little more in terms of the way it suited my voice. But it was pretty close to be honest.

The Tbone, Roland and Line 6 mics just didn't measure up to the AKG sound quality in my opinion, the line 6 was very thin sounding, the tbone very poppy and the Roland didn't have the same clarity as the AKG.

I also compared the AKG to an SM58 and the AKG blew the SM58 out of the water in terms of sound, I was pretty amazed and didn't expect that. The AKG had a much smoother rounder sound to my ears.

So overall the AKG C520 is an amazingly high quality mic and especially at the price it's listed it was a great buy, no regrets. It's well built, easy to put on and very stable once it's on, and I find it comfortable as far as head set mics go.

It uses phantom power from a standard mixer i.e. 48 volts and even has a low cut filter which I found necessary as it's low frequencies extends right down, and without the filter you get a few pops when singing. It suits the male voice perfectly for Rock /Pop /Folk /Blues, and sounds like a much more expensive mic. I compared it with a Beezneez studio valve mic I use which is 10 times more expensive than the AKG and ok the valve mic brought out every nuance of my voice, but the AKG wasn't far behind and sounded almost as good with a little tweaking of EQ. With one exception; you need to be careful with overloading of your preamp with plosives with the AKG, it can really pop if you have it too close to your mouth. The Valve mic overloads more gracefully and doesn't have this problem. But I guess all headset mics suffer from pops to a lesser or greater degree because they're so close, and the proximity effect exacerbates this. I found pushing the mic slightly to the side so it wasn't infront of my mouth eliminated the plosive problem and it then sounded great.

In terms of side pickup of acoustic guitar while I was playing and singing, The mic attenuated the guitar by about -20dB, which still made it audible, and wasn't as good in this respect as some of the hypercardioid mics out there like some of the Shures. But in saying this, the AKG had a much better sound with it's cardioid pattern.

The other great thing about this mic is it has a standard XLR with 3 metre cable, no messing around with adaptors etc, just plugin to a mixer or preamp and your set to go, or it does also come as an AKG C520 L which is better suited for wireless adapters as it has a different plug, I didn't need this.

I wanted to review this mic once I got it because I didn't read many reviews about it online and ended up spending a lot of time working out which mic to get. So I thought people might find this useful.

Over all I find the AKG C520 is an amazingly good mic for the price and matches mics 2 or 3 times the price from the comparisons I made.

Hope people find this useful.

Cheers :)

Comments about AKG C 520 Headworn Condenser Microphone:

I recently purchased this mic based on the specs, also because I wanted to eliminate carrying mike stands around. I use this mike with my newly purchased JBL eon 210p.The mike and PA are a perfect match. I play a Martin d-28,Podium anniversary ,with a fishman rare earth blend into a acoustasonic 30 and I run the martin through the pa as well. The akg mike is the best I,ve ever owned , I own a shure SM 58 also but the akg c520 runs circles around the SM58. I bought the c 520 akg new from Muscians Friend ,I am more than pleased with it.