Behringer ULTRAVOICE XM1800S Dynamic Handheld Microphone, 3 Pack

I am a hobbyist / semi professional musician. I have played music and ran sound in local beer dives and festivals for over 25 years, so this is the POV that this review is coming from – the proverbial “weekend warrior” (what 99% of performing musicians are).

First of all, you can’t beat the price on these mics. They come in a handy case along with three mic stand clips. You will want to transport these mics in the case. They are not “bulletproof”, nor can you “hammer a stage together” with them like some of the myths surrounding more expensive, professional microphones. I take care of my equipment, so I cannot vouch for how much abuse they will take.

I have never written an equipment review before. What possessed me to do so in this case is that last weekend my band opened up for another local band who didn’t have enough material to cover four hours, so we split the door. Anyhow, we used the other band’s PA equipment including mics. Fortunately, I am a singing drummer so I always bring my own mic, cord, and stand. I have used these Behringer’s for almost a year, and I have been pleased with their performance so far. I packed a Behringer for this gig.

The other band had a nice sound system (too bad they don’t know how to run sound), including a whole host of Shure SM58’s. I haven’t directly compared the SM58 to the XM1800S yet, and I can say with authority that I am very happy that I brought the Behringer. The sound quality on my Behringer was crisp and clean. The SM58 has always been “mid happy” IMHO, and can sound muddy very quickly, especially when the sound guy is not very experienced. I am a “set it and forget it” guy. I am too busy singing and playing drums to be knob dicking the sound board all night. The Behringer XM1800S meets my needs very nicely.

In summary…

Great price!
Handy case!
You can never have enough mic clips!
Crisp and clean sound!
On/off switch to confuse the guitarists!
Not going to take the abuse of a $100 Shure SM58!
The perfect mic for the weekend warrior, beer dive working musician!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

I have never been disappointed with any Behringer equipment I have ever purchased. We have the Europower 1200 watt powered mixer and two Behringer speakers that we have used for many years. When our old microphones decided to give up I immediately thought of Behringer. The deal for the three was unbeatable (well, you could beat it with some no name mics- but, no thanks). Don’t be afraid to grab these, they do a great job.

These are a stable good microphone with a good value to performance. They may not be top of the line but they are solid construction and provide a good full sound.

Excelente calidad y versatilidad. Buena relación calidad y precio.

I use these as my travel pair and I have zero complaints in general. They have a bier setting but once you EQ them and the mixer they sound great. I have zero complaints. I’ve traveled with these and they can take a beating no complaints and they are priced right

I bought these microphones because the price seemed good and the case looked sturdy. I planned to use one microphone for doing video interviews, and the other two as backups or if I had a project needing more than one microphone.

These microphones really pick up well and send a strong signal. They can be used within close proximity or even a couple feet away from my mouth (or an instrument) and they still pick up strong.

In terms of tonal response, they are fine. You’d probably have to spend a lot more money to get better sound. They sound better than $100 name brand microphones I bought about a decade ago for use wit a live band.

At first when I tested the microphone I found it so sensitive that I thought it would pick up the slightest sound from my hand on the microphone (which it does). However I put some tape on it, and when I got out “into the field” the level of input as I spoke plus the ambient sound drowned out any “handling noise” which is to say they worked very well indeed.

I would highly recommend these microphones for live performance, studio, or field work. The case is really nice and these microphones look to be very good quality and sturdy. Their sound is very good and anyone would be hard pressed to think you didn’t lay out $100 a microphone for these (and as I said, there are $100 microphones out there that do a much worse job).

I bought this set of three mikes because they seemed to be a good price, and they were. They may not quite equal the industry-standard Shure SM58 in sound quality, but they’re close – maybe equivalent to a PG-48 or so. Their output level is comparable, and in most cases they could be used as an even swap for a ’58. Frankly, I was a bit embarrassed hauling these out instead of Shures, but once we started using them, they sounded fine, and the embarrassment went away…

… until the conga player walked off the back of the stage, dragging everything with him. The Behringer fell about six feet into hard dirt (not even concrete). I would have expected maybe a dent in the windscreen, and in fact there was (the windscreens aren’t as resistant to denting as the Shures, but generally, they’re good enough). It still made signal, so i thought everything was good, but now we had a loose-wire-sounding crackle from that channel. When I was switching the cable, I noticed that the microphone itself had a very bad rattle; in fact, the entire capsule mount had broken and the element was just floating around loose in the housing. Scratch one mike.

So, if you treat these somewhat gently, they’re probably fine, but don’t expect to go all Roger Daltrey on them and expect them to survive. A Shure wouldn’t have even blinked at that fall. Two stars taken off for durability, one given back for value.