In my search to find the perfect all-round microphone that’s suitable for live stage performances, podcasting or news gathering, my quest has reached the SR1117 from Earthworks Audio. This microphone is a worthy challenger to Shure’s SM58 dynamic mic and has garnered praise from some well-known musicians who have been beguiled by its clarity.
The Earthworks Audio’s SR117 looks a little like a Sennheiser Evolution Series mic with its matte black grille but it has a total absence of branding, save for a thin strip of stainless steel running around the base of the grille.
Although it looks like a dynamic mic, the SR117 uses a small condenser capsule that has bags of class and is relatively sensitive. Normally, a condenser mic might be too sensitive for stage work, but the SR117 is special as it strikes the perfect balance between the sensitivity of a dynamic mic with the characteristic ability to pick up nuance as only a condenser can.
It’s not just me who thinks the SR117 is a great performer. Van Morrison’s sound technician, Schon Emmanuel, handed the big man an SR117 when he wasn’t getting any love from the mic he had been using. The SR117 is also the mic that the Doobie Brothers swooned over during their rehearsals for a big comeback tour.
The Earthworks SR117 may have won over some big names in the music business but it has a low-profile. You’d never guess who else is using this mic because it’s not plastered in logos. With its super-cardioid polar pickup pattern, the SR117 feels like a dynamic mic but sounds like a condenser and although it sounds superb straight out of the box, it an ideal mic for applying EQ to. It’s a bit of a blank canvas.
As with all good live mics, the SR117 is relatively resistance to plosives, even without a foam windshield. Unless you are using it outdoors in a gale, you may not even need a windshield. You can crank up the gain and the likelihood of triggering feedback or bleed from other instruments is vanishingly small because of excellent the SR117’s excellent off-axis rejection.
Perhaps the finest aspect of this microphone is its uniform and transparent frequency response. It’s absolutely flat. This is a microphone that doesn’t color sound because the SR117 doesn’t have a personality. It captures sounds without applying any bias or coloration.
Earthworks Audio describes the SR117 as “The Best Mic We’ve Ever Made.” With its low handling noise and excellent SPL, a performer can sing their heart out and the SR117 will soak it up… even Celine Dion or Adele would struggle to push this mic to its limits.
The SR117 has an excellent impulse response. Have you ever heard a recording of your voice played back and thought that it sounds nothing like you? Now imagine this with a professional vocalist who knows every tiny nuance in their voice. That performer will know immediately if a microphone is distorting their vocal and making it sound weird.
I spoke to Earthwork Audio’s Scott Lumsden about this. Lumsden is the product manager for the SR117 and what he doesn’t know about microphone design is probably not worth knowing.
Lumsden explained that the design of the SR117’s acoustic chamber manages to capture the perfect linear impulse response in such a way that it doesn’t color the sound when capturing vocals in their raw form; neither does it introduce a delay. This is the reason why some artists take instantly to the SR117, because they recognize their voice and that makes them more confident that the mic will properly capture their performance.
This was the case with Van Morrison when he first tried out the SR117. Anyone who has seen Morrison playing live in recent years will know just how tight his band sounds. Schon Emmanuel is Morrison’s tour sound engineer and one day he handed the brusque Ulsterman a SR117. Apparently, he was very happy, although it’s not always easy to tell when Van Morrison is happy.
A similar thing happened when the Doobie Brothers were rehearsing for their recent reunion tour. It takes a special kind of magic to capture the vocal range of the Doobie harmonies. The SR117 managed to do it and then some.
In a piece published by Lighting & Sound America, the Doobie’s monitor engineer said: “The SR117 is a new condenser mic they came out with this year; we’re using it on all the vocals. Probably 80% of the mics we have on stage are from Earthworks. I did a shootout at the beginning of the year, looking at a few different microphones, and the SR117 shone.
“Our production manager turned us onto Earthworks and once we got our ears on them, they were the only choice. When we got into rehearsals, everybody noticed the difference right away. It has that big condenser and that big, fat, warm studio sound, but it behaves like a live dynamic microphone.
“The concern initially was, can we choose one microphone for all six vocalists and be happy in every position? With a couple of other microphones, we felt, okay, this is great for Michael but maybe not for Tommy or Par. Once we found the SR117, we saw it could work for everybody.”
High praise indeed. Perhaps microphones are a bit like Cinderella’s glass slipper in that it has to fit a voice perfectly Not all mics will suit all voices but the SR117 is exceptionally tolerant of a wide range of voices thanks to a lack of coloration and its excellent impulse response.
Damien Quintard is the renowned French music producer and co-founder, with Brad Pitt, of Miraval Studios. He had this to say about the SR117: “I’d take a good idea recorded on a $200 mic any day compared to a bad idea recorded on a $10K mic. If you give the chance to any generation to record with a studio-grade quality for a cool price then I think you’re doing a service to m
usic and humanity. So all my best for the SR117 mic and to everyone at Earthworks.”
I also wanted to test the SR117’s suitability for live streaming and podcasting, I followed Scott Lumsden’s suggestion and bought a Star Quad XLR cable from WBC Gotham to plug into the Lewitt Connect 2 audio interface I was using. Using a well-shielded cable is always a good idea if you are working next to a computer or a Wi-Fi router because electrical interference can be a problem. However, that wasn’t the case with the SR117, it’s an exceptionally well-shielded mic and there were no issues.
The Lewitt Connect 2 is a great interface for using with the SR117 as it has a compressor and a range of mic effects ranging from Vivid, through to Warm and Clear if you want to tweak the sound a little. It’s a superb interface. I also tested the SR117 with a RØDE AI-1 interface and I’ll be writing a review on that soon.
Verdict: If you are looking for a great live mic that can go beyond what the Shure SM58 can offer and you want the kind of sound that only a condenser mic can produce, the Earthworks Audio SR117 is well worth an audition. There is a chance it might not suit your voice, but there’s much better chance that it will. Its flat response is ideal for adding EQ to if you want a bit more bottom end. Finally, if it’s good enough for Van Morrison and the Doobie Brothers, then it’s probably good enough for you.
Pricing & Availability: The Earthworks Audio SR117 condenser vocal mic is available now and costs $199 / £199 / €199 from Earthworks Audio direct or from your local sound equipment distributor.
Tech Specs:
- Type: Condenser.
- Connection: XLR 3-pin.
- Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHJz.
- Polar pattern: Supercardioid.
- Sensitivity (1kHz): 140dB SPL.
- Power requirements: 48V Phantom Power 10mA.
- Peak acoustic input: 140dB SPL.
- Minimum load impedance: 1kΩ.
- Self-noise (A Weighted): 20dB SPL.
- Signal-to-noise ratio: 74dB.
- Accessories: Microphone bag and clip.
- Dimensions: 7 x 12.93 inches.
- Color: Black with stainless steel ring.
- Weight: 360g.
