Pricing and availability

* Product prices and availability are updated by Equipboard every 24hrs and are subject to change. Equipboard may receive compensation for purchases made at participating retailers linked on this site. This compensation does not affect what products or prices are displayed, or the order of prices listed. For more information, please refer to our affiliate disclosure.

Reviews

Owner Insights

We analyzed real musician discussions from forums and Reddit to find what players love, question, and tweak about Modded MXL Microphone (RK87).

Mods and upgrades

  • The MXL 990 modded with an Oktava mod is recommended for its improved sound, offering a budget-friendly alternative to high-end microphones like the U87.

    Source
  • The mic-parts.com 990 mod kit is highly regarded for its value, significantly enhancing the MXL 990's performance and offering an excellent cost-to-performance ratio.

    Source
  • The MXL 990 modded with an Oktava mod results in a mic that closely resembles the U87's sonic profile, though it diverges in capsule, circuit, and body design.

    Source
  • Building a mic from vintagemicrophonepcbkit.com requires sourcing additional parts like the body and capsule, unlike mic-parts.com kits which are all-inclusive.

    Source

User experience

  • Building the RA-23/RK-87 kit from microphone-parts.com takes approximately four hours and is praised for its sound quality, comparing favorably to Neumann and Sennheiser models.

    Source
  • Owners of the RA-23/RK-87 kit note its superior performance compared to many Sennheisers, with a build time of around four hours, including sorting parts.

    Source

Use cases and applications

  • The Advanced Audio CM414 is noted for its versatility and sound quality, impressing both users and recording artists across various recording scenarios.

    Source
  • The sonic profile of a K87 capsule with corrective EQ is favored on vocals and various other sources without the hard-wired high pass filter found in the U87.

    Source

Comparisons

  • The TLM103 is considered too bright and harsh for vocal recordings compared to the U87, particularly due to differences in capsule and transformer design.

    Source
  • The MXL 990 with the Oktava mod and the Hulk 990 are praised as effective U87 substitutes, offering great sound quality without matching U87's design elements.

    Source

5.0 out of 5

Based on 1 Review and 1 Rating

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
grovestand

Fantastic for the price!

Great budget DIY solution to really fantastic vocals! If you know your way around a soldering iron this is a great first DIY project:

http://microphone-parts.com/mod-kits/jim-williams-mxl-mod-kit/

Genre Usage

Based on how artists on Equipboard use this gear, it is most commonly found in the following genres.

Popular Music Gear

Avid Pro Tools

$225.00 - $599.00

# 1

Rank

Josh Homme Billie Joe Armstrong John Mayer
488 artists using
See also:

Artist usage

Community setups

Similar