Does anyone understand Amazon price changes?

[Saracen999]

Personally when I know prices change regularly (e.g Amazon's 'random' up and downs, Steams regular sales, Eurocarparts continuous sales) then I'm less likely to just buy something straight away. I'll hunt around more shops, check price history and wait for a price drop rather than just beleiving I'm getting a reasonable deal and purchasing there and then.

Where the price delta is a decent chunk of change, so would I. But the whole 50 to 100 price changes made about the same difference in price, maybe less, as a cup of coffee in Starbucks or Costa. I really don't give a hoot, if it's the right item. The NAS I'm looking at at the moment, on the other hand, has gone up and down by about £45-£50 over the last couple of weeks and that might be enough to make me wait .... if I had actually decided on make and model. I'm still thinking on that one. Oh, and that one likely is supply issues, as they seem to be in low stock everywhere.

[ik9000]

Note: The item in question is a Behringer XM8500 dynamic cardiod mic which, reportedly, comes pretty close to the sound of a Shure SM58 and with a bit of minor tweaking in post, can be virtually indistinguishable. As the audio will be processed anyway, running a bit of EQ is the work of moments. Thing is, even the Shure original is only about £70-ish, and the Behringer is very much a punt I'm prepared to dump. But with the mucking about, I'm inclined to just "Ah, nuts to it" and go Shure.

Also, during the time I was watching the price games, I also saw a bit of info about some of Behringer's alleged business practices that's making me think twice anyway.

Saracen, just go shure if you can afford it, or failing that AKG D5, which for some vocals can sound better. Wouldn't bother with anything else tbh personally. My stage kit is SM58, SM57 and a D5. Got some condensers for home studio, but you can't beat a Shure on stage so why cut corners, it's a false economy IMO.

If you really need a budget one then you can go for that Behringer, or for a little more the AKG P3s might be a better half-way house. I have some cheap behringer condensing C5 or C3 for a matching pair and they're perfectly fine for home use. You get what you pay for though and no way I'd use that XM8500 live.

[Saracen999]

Thanks, IK. It is for use in a home studio, though. And a pretty quiet one (quiet in the sense of little background noise even for a sensitive mic to pick up). It's essentially for a test for a home studio and entirely possible it'll never be more than a voiceover on the occasional personal video project. Won't be used on stage ever, and the closest it'll get to live is a very small chance of live streaming, and even that, not yet.

I'm contemplating dipping a toe in the YT bathwater, but as much as anything it's an exercise, for fun, in the concept, and eminently possible it may not amount to more than that.

Effectively, I'm blending a couple of different projects (*) and most of the expenditure will be on the other one, with a degree of overlap meaning that the addition of a couple of bits of cheap gear should be sufficient test. The plan is, if I go ahead, get a decent mic (etc) and use the Behringer as a spare, and if I don't .... minimal loss.

(*) Three, actually. And in part, it's to provideself-justication for both a new camera, and some categories of toys I didn't get around to playing with. If you think back on some of my 'project' hardware questions over the last year or so, the overall shape of my current antics should be a bit clearer.