"The folks at Marshall Electronics have done it again. Several years ago,
they created a revolution by offering incredibly inexpensive studio mics
that sounded nearly as good-or as good-as their venerable counterparts
that cost thousands of dollars more. Their newest offering is a
large-diaphragm tube condenser, the MXL V69 Mogami Edition.

We've been very impressed with MXL mics in the past, but this time we
figured we'd really put the review unit through the ringer. So, we tested
the V69 against-count 'em-11 other popular condensers, ranging in price
from $169 to $5,000 list. Our test subject was an experienced recording
artist with multiple CD titles under her belt. While the rest of us knew
which mics were plugged into which inputs, for the singer, the test was
completely blind.

After a couple hours of testing, both the engineer/producer and the singer
picked the V69 over the other 11 mics. None of them had the same
combination of classic tube warmth and top-end air of the V69. That's
partly because its frequency response is pretty much dead flat until a
nice, gradual climb between 10 and 20 kHz. As a result, the vocals
sounded full and cut through the mix enough to be clean and intelligible
without being harsh. The V69 also fared well in areas like self-noise and
dynamic range. And it comes in a rugged flight case, with power supply,
shockmount, wind screen, and Mogami cables.

In a Nutshell: I don't know how they manage to do it for the price, but
Marshall Electronics has released yet another fantastic mic in the V69.

Street Price: About $299."

From the January/February, 2003 Issue of Performing Songwriter
Magazine.