Nady SGM-12 Shotgun Condenser Microphone

Ive had mine for around 8 months now, I use it mainly for recording concerts as a room mic along with the soundboard feed. Sure I have heard better from a professional $1200+ stereo shotgun mic but when reviewing products it's only fair to keep the comparisons to other products in a similar price range.I don't have any noise or interference when using mine, but I am running straight xlr to xlr in on my mixer. Im guessing the people having noise issues are having some type of ground or impedance problem and using a xlr to 1/8 inch adapter on a video camera. They need to be sure it's also balanced to unbalanced, adapter, not just xlr to trs. Maybe finding a mic with a 1/8 unbalanced output would work better for them. Or they have quality control problems and I just happened to get a good one. On the Super Cardiod setting it's fairly sensitive, when playing with it I was able to pick up a cat purr at several feet with little background noise. Ive kept mine in the case and tried to be careful with it and so far had no problems.Too bad you can not use phantom power on it (some people have tired but the manual says nothing about it) but then again it's a low cost stripped down mic and the AA battery it rated for 1500 hours. That comes to over a year if you used it 4 hours every day.

We replaced six Shure dynamic mics with two of the SGM-12s for our church choir. Through our Behringer mixer they seem to work fine. The sensitivity in normal cardiod mode is not good, but in super-cardiod mode, they are quite sensitive. They made a lot of noise on our small mixer with phantom power on, but on the large mixer they're quiet. They're not great, but for the price, they're quite good for our application.

The reviews on this mic have been somewhat mixed. Because of the price point and the 'if you know how to use it, it's great' reviews, I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm going to be doing some low $ production video and a shotgun mic was one micing option for I was considering for some of the shots.The good is that this mic has very high output and is very sensitive. The bad... (there's a lot of it) 1) this mic has so much self noise that I won't use it. 2) the cardioid pattern doesn't work, only the hypercardioid. This is a design flaw. I took the mic apart to see if it was a simple fix, such as a bad solder or a defective part. Nope. Just a really bad design. 3) the low frequency response on the mic is abysmal.I could dig in and troubleshoot the circuit design. The failure here is probably either a poorly printed circuit board that's missing a trace, or a really crappy part in a critical location or maybe even a wire that's attached at the wrong point in the circuit. Simple stuff. But, why bother? It was a gamble and I lost.This mic is a toy, not a tool.

Received this microphone and it was working fine. I store it in its original box and packaging in a hard case large box. 2 days later, I went to connect the microphone again and it was still working fine. However, as I switched the microphone on again, it was not working as it did earlier in the day. It still picks up sound, but not that good. I changed XLR cables and still had the same problem. I will be returning this item for a refund.

I am in high school, so money is a bit of a problem when it comes to messing around and making films. I use a Nikon DSLR for our video shoots and the on-board mic is worthless. I ordered one of these mainly because they are cheap and practically disposable. When it came in the mail, 3 days early to be exact, i found it to be somewhat well built and sounding ok. No matter what kind of mic it is, it sounds better than any on-board mic that is built in to any camera. I know it doesn't sound like a $400 Rode mic, but that's because it cost $30. So for a high school-er who wants to shoot some fun videos with his class, this mic is top notch. Not to mention that if it breaks or if a class mate drops it, its only $30 to replace. Overall, it is an amazing mic for the price. That is what NADY is for, cheap, but ok gear.

Gotta say, tough to beat for under $30. Switchable pattern (cardioid and super-cardioid). Very sensitive in super-cardioid mode. Seems like a durable metal housing. Comes with a foam pop filter. In a perfect world, it would also work using phantom power (only option is a AA battery). But...oh yeah, I paid less than $30 for it. So I'm still giving it five stars. I use it in my home studio for applications where I want a mic with a strong proximity effect. Does the job.

Here's the deal. You get what you pay for. This mic is extremely noisy. It's similar to a regular unpowered dynamic microphone in sound quality, except that it's really, really loud.It is definitely a shotgun mic.This microphone adds so much noise at it's highest setting it's hard to believe. The signal-to-noise ratio is absolutely horrific.As noisy as it is, I have no intention on returning it. I have the ability to get around the noise by using Adobe Soundbooth, FL Studio, or Sound Forge to remove it after I record, so no problem.Note that the item only comes with a foam windscreen and nothing else, so you'll need to buy the wire and the camera or mic stand mount which will drive up the cost. You might as well go with one of the Azden mics which comes with all that stuff!At least it came with a battery!If you have no audio skills, please go with something else.

This is the absolute best mic I've used in this price range. I've heard these can fall apart over time, but honestly with what you're paying you should expect this to fall apart eventually. Great starter mic!