small church do-all mic advice needed

[Terry]

Greetings from SW Alaska!

I represent (proudly) a small Southern Baptist church on the shores of Bristol Bay, Dillingham Bible Fellowship. When I say small, our current average Sunday attendance is around 75-80 people. Our sanctuary could, with feasibly hold as many as 150 or a little more. Again, small, possibly very small for many of you. But God has been very good to us; we started out with just a few couples only five years ago. We now have a new building, a growing congregation, a full time pastor and we are building a parsonage. But I digress...

We wanted to upgrade our sound system. We had an antiquated Phonic mixer and speakers that were gifted to us. We recently purchased Stagepas 300 speakers. This decision was made after I read a number of threads on this site and others, as well as having had the opportunity to borrow a set of Stagepas 300s from a musician friend. We liked his and bought our own; they arrived last week.

Now we are wanting a microphone. At this time we are only looking at purchasing one. After a good deal of digging through threads, I came up with a list of 4 that, if I read the threads about them correctly, seem like they would work. Those four are the Sennheiser e935, e835, Shure Beta 58A and Audix OM2.

Our budget is around $150. It is intended that it will be used by our pastor during service and by the woman who leads us in music worship. Both individuals have expressed a preference for a corded microphone.

What I would like to hear from people on here is that these mics will actually do that job for us- or not, if that's the case. I have absolutely no musical or audio background beyond turning on the CD player or operating the volume control on the TV remote. Apparently our congregation lacks for people with that background, whereas no one else volunteered. I did, and so I'm asking the good people of this forum for their feedback.

Will those particular microphones work for those two purposes, given our congregation size and budget?

Thank you for your time; it is greatly appreciated. I realize that this is akin to asking a maker of fine firearms to give his opinion about the best single pump BB gun to scare away squirrels with, but that's where we're at and where my experience level is.

Terry

[prochlea]

I've become very fond of the Heil PR-20 for all around use. They have a "utility" version that's only $100.

The others are probably fine too, except the Shure Beta 58a... Personally I hate that mic. It's too harsh in the upper range.

[ABTarasoff]

A church I used to run sound used the Sennheiser e835 which were bought as a three pack for about $250.00. They hold up ruggedly and have a smooth clear sound to them. They also have a good warranty program.

[ServantForLife]

I am a Shure microphone man thru and thru. I would go with either a beta 58a or an SM 58. Here is a money saving secret. The beta and sm series are not a whole lot different from each other. The biggest difference is a frequency spike around 4k in the Beta. Save yourself a little money and get the SM 58. You won't be disappointed.

[bbrunskill]

Any of those mics will be fine.

[Gene]

I have experience with the Shure and Sennheiser mics listed, and any of those is a good all-purpose mic that should get the job done with you. I have a particular liking for the SM58 because of its ruggedness.

[pdc]

Buy a new vocal mic, like a Sennheiser e835, which will beat the crud out of Shure SM58 any day with better tone and off axis rejection (but a little higher handling noise) and then buy a used Shure SM57 for instruments.

If you are REALLY in a pinch and you can take care of your gear, go with some Audio Technica ATM410s. Someone like Full Compass will blow those out DIRT cheap. They are huge volume AT dealers and often have access to B stocks as well.

[2cool]

If you can afford a Sennheiser get it (these mic are great if taken care of), but if you are looking for a good solid sound and ruggedness you cant beat the Shure SM58 it will last.