Hi, I'm brand new to this forum, but I hang around the Vegas forum a lot.

I've been planning to get the Sony ECM-MS957 stereo microphone for about $200, but have been surprised that there is very little comment on the Internet about this product. I've been very impressed with Sony products in general, and was wondering if they dropped the ball with this product.

Are there better choices out there?

As bad as it sounds I, as well as others are guilty of bypassing most consumer microphones. Closer examination shows that this is a Mid / Side stereo with a switchable pattern (cardoid to hyper , 90-120 degrees). It's aimed at tapers and to be used in conjunction with mini disk or the Sony DAT walkman.

There's not much detail in the spec, it has an XLR output that is adapted to a 1/8 stereo right angled plug. It's not clear whwther or not it's configured as a standard 5 pin XLR out. I rather doubt it though, not for that money.

I checked at minidisk.org and oades tapers forum as well as 2 other tapers forums with no luck.

It may be ok for your purposes but it's still a consumer grade mic. It depends on your tastes.

Thanks for the feedback.

What I'm looking for is a very good stereo microphone that is under $500. Any thoughts?

Why stereo. If it's dialog you really need a high quality mono.

It also depends on which camera you have.

The rode NT4 is a nice stereo mic for the money. It can operate on battery or phantom.

http://www.rodemicrophones.com/specsnt4/nt4specs.htm

The 907/908 sounds pretty good IMO. If you place it right then you can get very good sound (assuming you want to record foley, ambience, or do simple recording of music). In other scenarios you will want another kind of microphone.

Never heard the 957. Maybe listen to it in a Sony store?

The 930C I tried was crap. Worse than a camera mic.

I'm a big fan of (you guessed it) the AT 825. This is a GREAT low cost stereo mic.
Richard, I've never tried the 957. Other than the Sony lavs and upper end shotguns, I've never been too impressed with their mics in similar price ranges of other mics. But...that is just my impression. Maybe you could let us know what you come up with?

What I'm doing is shooting 4-channel audio on my VX2000 while walking along with the group (it's a documentary). Right now I have two MS908C's in shock mounts, one facing forward and one aft.

After doing some spectrum analyzer tests I'm not as thrilled with the MS908C microphones as I was, and they do have some hiss. I've run out of time for this trip, but I'd love to try out one of the AT825 units before the next trip.

Thanks to all for your comments. I'm off to Austria in two days.

I agree with Douglas. The AT 825 is a good, affordable stereo mic.

I don't want to offend anybody here, but since I read this post and I'm compelled to keep any of these threads as helpful to readers as possible I have to relay my experience with the ms907/908... I sincerely thought it was NO improvement over the internal mic of my old trv17. I was really upset at how poor the sound quality was... I got one at Guitar Center for $89 (plus tax) and felt excited that I finally had a nice, mini-plug mic for my mzr37... I gave it about 15 minutes once I got home... and I just couldn't believe how inferior it was to any of the cheap condensers I've used. It was very hissy, compressed, undetailed/muddy... If you do an A/B between this and even a $99 Oktava special from Guitar Center then the difference isn't just night and day... the difference is night and Christmas fruit cake.

its anice mike for urbanic noise , sounds pretty desent if you recording high noice invaerment for fx - very poor for all other things - sony it only a name which rice the price , for better sound look for something different .

"After doing some spectrum analyzer tests I'm not as thrilled with the MS908C microphones as I was, and they do have some hiss."

Try using your ears.

The hiss isn't the mic necessarily, it could be the VX2k's preamp. If the VX2000's preamps are run any higher than 60% there is an audible hiss.

How are you getting 4 channels into the VX2000?

I'm just putting the front two channels on the VX2000. The rear two channels are going into a Sharp Minidisc unit mounted on the back of the VX2000 battery.