Peavey's Studio Pro M2 has been around for few years now but has somehow kept under our radar, so I thought it was time I tried one out. Outwardly, it's a fairly conventional large‑diaphragm mic built around a one‑inch, gold‑plated, double‑membrane capsule and switchable between cardioid, figure‑of‑eight and omni pickup patterns. There's a low‑cut switch plus a ‑10dB attenuation (or 'pad') switch on the mic body, which hikes the maximum SPL handling up to 140dB. The capsule's frequency response is quoted as 30Hz to 20kHz — though, as is becoming increasingly common, we're not told how many dBs down the response is at these two points, so on their own, these figures are pretty meaningless! A rigid carrying case and stand‑mount are included, but if you want a shockmount for the mic, you'll have to pay extra.
Looking inside the mic reveals discrete solid‑state circuitry and a transformer output-stage, and everything is neatly assembled on two main printed circuit boards. Oddly enough, although certain engineers have endorsed this mic on the Peavey web site, and commented on its low noise, there is no noise spec available, and the only response curve I could find was printed on the box at around the size of a postage stamp. This shows a nominally flat response, but with a presence hump rising to around 6dB at 10kHz; as is invariably the case, the presence hump changes position and shape depending on which pattern you select. The graph also suggests that the quoted frequency response is measured at the ‑3dB points, which is the standard way to do it.
Despite its presence peak, the M2 actually has a very warm sound that would work well with any singer whose voice needs fattening up. Its only vice seems to be that it is prone to pick up low‑frequency vibrations via the casework, so using a shockmount is advisable. The tonality remains sensibly even between patterns, with the cardioid pattern seeming to suffer slightly more from stand‑borne noise, for some reason. The mic also works better than most capacitor models when capturing electric guitar: when I tried it in that application, the sound came across as both bright and punchy, but without the excessively grainy top-end some capacitor mics tend to emphasise. At this price, the Studio Pro M2 faces some stiff competition, but its warm character and guitar‑friendliness should win it a lot of friends. Paul White
£363 including VAT.
$299.99.