Episode 104
I got DUPED! The Battle of the Real Shure SM7B vs. Fake.
Have you ever bought something online, thinking you scored a fantastic deal, only to realise later that it might not have been what it seemed?
Well, that's exactly what happened to me with the Shure SM7B microphone.
Today, I'm sharing my story of how I ended up with two fake SM7B microphones and the results of an audio battle I conducted between the real deal and its dupe.
Find out if the dupe is worth the savings or if you should stick with the original.
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Transcript
Today we are doing a battle
Speaker:between, no, they're not the
Speaker:same microphone, although you may
Speaker:think they're the same microphone.
Speaker:We have the Shure SM7B.
Speaker:Versus the Shure SM7B fake, the
Speaker:dupe version of the Shure SM7B.
Speaker:Let me tell you a story about how
Speaker:this happened in the first place.
Speaker:I was on Amazon, and I
Speaker:love shopping on Amazon.
Speaker:In fact, all the links that I
Speaker:provide are always in Amazon.
Speaker:I saw this microphone come on the floor.
Speaker:sale on Amazon for like 400.
Speaker:And I was like, Oh my God, I know
Speaker:how expensive the Shure SM7B is.
Speaker:It's got like a sale price on it.
Speaker:I'm buying it.
Speaker:And in fact, I bought two.
Speaker:This store had a bunch of
Speaker:reviews, all like good reviews.
Speaker:I was really happy with the price and
Speaker:I thought, I've got myself a bargain.
Speaker:This is so great.
Speaker:So I purchased this microphone
Speaker:and I started using it, uh,
Speaker:in my studio and work, and I
Speaker:thought, I don't really love this.
Speaker:I'd been told, I'd seen that, you
Speaker:know, the SM7B was everywhere.
Speaker:And I wasn't really happy with it.
Speaker:So I thought, look, this
Speaker:microphone just isn't for me.
Speaker:The quality of it, how it
Speaker:sounds for me wasn't right.
Speaker:So I decided to sell my microphones
Speaker:because I just wasn't using these.
Speaker:So I put it online, , on Facebook
Speaker:marketplace and I had a guy reach out
Speaker:to me and want to buy one of them.
Speaker:And I said, look, you're
Speaker:getting a great deal here.
Speaker:This is a fantastic microphone,
Speaker:just doesn't suit my voice.
Speaker:I got a message from him and he
Speaker:said, Hey, you've sold me a fake.
Speaker:You need to reply to me within, you know,
Speaker:30 minutes or I'm calling the police.
Speaker:And I was like, woah, man, chill out.
Speaker:Firstly, I didn't know there were
Speaker:fakes and surely it's not a fake.
Speaker:I got it from a good
Speaker:seller and all the things.
Speaker:So I felt really bad, but also
Speaker:confident that I hadn't sold him a fake.
Speaker:Then I went on YouTube.
Speaker:And I started looking around like,
Speaker:okay, well, what is this fake thing?
Speaker:Have I actually done this by mistake?
Speaker:There were enough videos there on YouTube
Speaker:that show you whether the microphone
Speaker:is actually a fake of the Shure SM7B.
Speaker:So I'm not going to go through everything
Speaker:there, but the things that you could
Speaker:probably look at just off this video, the
Speaker:lead is actually coming out a little bit.
Speaker:from the microphone on the fake.
Speaker:It's definitely not the same connection
Speaker:point as the other proper SM7B.
Speaker:You'll also notice that the
Speaker:color is slightly different.
Speaker:So we've got a really black
Speaker:color versus something that's a
Speaker:little bit more gray on this one.
Speaker:Turns out I had in fact sold
Speaker:him a fake and I felt super bad.
Speaker:I said, look, man, totally come around.
Speaker:I'll give you your money back.
Speaker:I'm so sorry.
Speaker:I didn't realize there was
Speaker:such a thing as a fake.
Speaker:And I just felt awful.
Speaker:But then I thought, hang on, it's
Speaker:probably a really good idea to do a
Speaker:review of the fake versus the real
Speaker:so that you can have a little bit of
Speaker:a look at what the differences are.
Speaker:I'm going to do a few tests.
Speaker:I'm going to do some pops, some
Speaker:sibilance, I'm going to sing into
Speaker:these microphones and then you're going
Speaker:to be able to hear any differences.
Speaker:Make sure you pop your
Speaker:headphones on and let's go.
Speaker:Okay, I'm jumping in here.
Speaker:I'm now back at the home studio, letting
Speaker:you know that for these tests, the
Speaker:fake one is the one you hear first.
Speaker:So you'll hear two rounds of popping the
Speaker:popcorn with the fake, then two rounds
Speaker:of popping the popcorn with the real.
Speaker:And then when we move on to the Moses
Speaker:supposes, then it's always fake.
Speaker:Then real of exactly the same phrase.
Speaker:And then with the happy birthdays,
Speaker:then again, it's the fake first
Speaker:for two phrases, and then the,
Speaker:uh, real is the second half.
Speaker:So when I go up to happy birthday,
Speaker:dear Rihanna, that's when it
Speaker:changes over to, uh, real.
Speaker:The reel.
Speaker:Now, the reason why I am saying
Speaker:this now is because I didn't want
Speaker:to interrupt the flow between the
Speaker:two microphones so that you can hear
Speaker:really the difference between them.
Speaker:If I jump in in the middle
Speaker:of them, then that kind of
Speaker:breaks up the audio experience.
Speaker:So hopefully that now makes sense to you.
Speaker:You can go and listen to this.
Speaker:If you wanted to see it on video so that
Speaker:it's easier to establish, then go over
Speaker:to YouTube and have a look at it there.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Popping the popcorn and
Speaker:sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn and
Speaker:sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn and
Speaker:sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:Popping the popcorn and
Speaker:sizzling the sausages.
Speaker:If Moses supposes his toes are roses,
Speaker:then Moses supposes erroneously.
Speaker:If Moses supposes his toes are roses,
Speaker:then Moses supposes erroneously.
Speaker:Happy birthday to you.
Speaker:Happy birthday to you.
Speaker:Happy birthday Dear Brianna,
Speaker:happy birthday to you.
Speaker:What did you hear were the differences
Speaker:with these two microphones?
Speaker:Could you hear differences?
Speaker:Let's get into what I
Speaker:think about this situation.
Speaker:First thing I'll say though is
Speaker:that it, you know, it's not.
Speaker:Far off, like it's not a
Speaker:ridiculous difference in sound.
Speaker:I guess if you were strapped for
Speaker:cash and you wanted to look like you
Speaker:have an SM7B, then you could still
Speaker:get the fake, but I don't like that.
Speaker:Now, if we listen to this SM7B,
Speaker:the fake one, I feel like it's
Speaker:got Not much going on in the bass.
Speaker:It definitely doesn't
Speaker:give me much warmth.
Speaker:It gives me a bit of like
Speaker:sibilant more of that sound.
Speaker:It feels and sounds like
Speaker:it's just lesser quality.
Speaker:And that's me using like a
Speaker:completely unbiased sort of ear.
Speaker:When I'm reviewing microphones,
Speaker:I like to really just review what
Speaker:the sound sounds like, not Thinking
Speaker:about how much something costs
Speaker:or whether it is a fake or not.
Speaker:It just doesn't sound as nice.
Speaker:It doesn't sound as clear.
Speaker:It sounds like it's a
Speaker:bit bland, a bit boring.
Speaker:So that's that one.
Speaker:Now over here to the SM7B, you can
Speaker:hear that there's a lot more depth.
Speaker:It feels a lot warmer.
Speaker:It does have too much bass for me,
Speaker:I don't love the amount of bass that
Speaker:theSM7B gives my voice, but it sounds
Speaker:a lot better than the fake one.
Speaker:It handles the sibilance better, and
Speaker:that's probably the main differences.
Speaker:How does it handle the pops?
Speaker:I mean, we've got two
Speaker:different pop filters on here.
Speaker:Both of them handle the pops really well,
Speaker:but the sound just isn't as good out of
Speaker:this microphone as it is out of this one.
Speaker:Microphone.
Speaker:This has much less going on.
Speaker:Can you hear the difference?
Speaker:I hope you can hear the difference
Speaker:between these two microphones.
Speaker:If you're in the market for a SM
Speaker:seven B, just get the real SM seven B.
Speaker:Please be very cautious shopping on
Speaker:Amazon for the SM seven B, make sure
Speaker:that you are paying the right price.
Speaker:You're not gonna get a half price deal.
Speaker:And it be the real microphone . I
Speaker:know that now and I can
Speaker:tell you that firsthand.
Speaker:please learn from my mistakes and
Speaker:like the channel, subscribe to
Speaker:the channel, leave some comments.
Speaker:Could you hear the difference?
Speaker:Like, really, could you
Speaker:hear the difference?
Speaker:What about these microphones?
Speaker:Do you like?
Speaker:Do you not like?
Speaker:Would you go, look, I have no problem
Speaker:shopping a dupe, shopping a fake, if it
Speaker:means that I get it at a lesser price,
Speaker:it sounds good enough, that could be
Speaker:something that you're looking at doing.
Speaker:But, for the price point of four
Speaker:hundred and something dollars,
Speaker:This isn't the one I'd buy.
Speaker:I wouldn't buy a fake of this SM7B.
Speaker:I would buy one of the other 450
Speaker:price range microphones that I've also
Speaker:reviewed and battled on this channel.
Speaker:I have a recommendation for the SE DCM8.
Speaker:I've done a review.
Speaker:I've done a battle between
Speaker:the SM7B and the DCM8.
Speaker:I would highly recommend.
Speaker:That microphone, uh,
Speaker:for a direct competitor.
Speaker:There's also the Shure MV7.
Speaker:There's other microphones in
Speaker:that price point that mean you
Speaker:don't need to stoop to the fake.
Speaker:You can get a high quality
Speaker:mic for that price point.
Speaker:If the SM7B brand doesn't need to
Speaker:be something that you adhere to.
Speaker:So go and look through the content.
Speaker:I hope you find something
Speaker:that's really valuable for you.
Speaker:Reach out to me at bambymedia.
Speaker:com if you want any further
Speaker:info about what we do.
Speaker:And thanks for being here.
