the t.bone SC 1100

There's a little trick I do from time to time to compare different products. It's good fun and you can learn a lot. What I do is set up blind A/B comparisons and compare two or more products to see which one's better. I don't limit this activity to audio products - I do it with wines, cheeses, coffees and teas... even fabrics. Sometimes the results are really astonishing. If you can't tell the brand name of the thing you're listening to/tasting/feeling... then you have to decide your preference on what your senses are telling you.

Most of the time I do this test on audio products, though. I've done pre-amps, mics, reverbs, keyboards, snare drums...

I've actually done blind A/B testing with some other T.Bone mics - the MB75 and the MB85 - and the reviews are up here on the Thomann website.

Anyway, I've just finished doing my blind A/B test on this mic (the T.Bone SC-1100) and another (how shall I put this?) er... "very well known" large diaphragm condenser mic. I won't mention it by name, but you know which one it is.

Well, the T.Bone mic won. Yes it did. Admittedly, I only tried the A/B test on vocals, but after all that's mostly what I'll be using this mic for. It beat the other, much more famous, mic; not by a huge amount - it was close - but it definitely came out on top. This mic has a warmer, smoother and less "middly" sound than "the other one". It also responds better to plosives (although that's not really an issue for either mic if you use a pop shield). The output of this mic did seem to be slightly lower than the other one, but again that's not an issue when you have a nice clean pre-amp and can turn up the input gain (you wouldn't have to turn it up by much anyway).

And the most astonishing thing - given that this mic WON the blind A/B test - is the price. A quick calculation brigs this mic in at 5.3% of the cost of the other one. A TWENTIETH of the price!

This is why I hate blind A/B testing. You learn a lot. Sometimes you learn too much!

I'll probably still use the other mic for outside clients in the studio. It's by no means a bad mic! And that's the mic that clients expect to see when they come in to record a vocal session, so that's the one I'll use - especially given thatI've spent SO much money on it! But for recording my own vocals, and other instruments, I'm using the T.Bone SC-1100. It's a better sounding mic.

In fact I'm placing an order for another one right now. :-)

I’ve had the t.bone SC 1100 in my rig for a few weeks now, and I’m quite pleasantly surprised. The mic feels solid and substantial, and I appreciate that it comes with a nice aluminum case and shock mount out of the box. Its switchable polar patterns (cardioid, omni, figure-8) add a lot of flexibility, which is great when I switch between vocals, acoustic instruments, or ambient captures. In practice, it delivers a warm, rich tone without obvious harshness, though I do notice it leans a bit “scooped” in the mids when pushed—so placement and room treatment matter. It’s fairly sensitive, so I sometimes dial back gain to avoid noise or room reflections. All told, for its price bracket it gives a lot of performance per euro, and I’m happy to keep using it as part of my home studio toolkit.