Great points. Heres my take on it.
- Theres lots of people doing mods out there. Some will probably be rubbish. The one I've mentioned is a fully fledged company so you are going to get the service of a proper business. All the mic's come with a 5 year warranty. The biggest factor I think that would reassure as to the lifespan of the mics is the fact that he is generally swapping out the cheaper components of these budget-mid range mics for better components. He talks through what he does on the website. For the NT1-A he swaps the capsule for the K47 that is found in Neumann mics, changes the headbasket and makes some upgrades to the circuit.
A problem could be the sell on value. I dont think people on ebay would want to shell out on a 'modded' mic for anymore than the original cost. Just because they dont know the reliability of the mod. It's easy to say so-and-so modded it on ebay. Having said that, the rode doesnt have much sell on value anyway as it's cheap to start with.
- The AKG is certainly a good mic. Is it in Neumann league? Probably not, but when you get to that price, it's more about different 'flavours' rather than what is better. I dont have a neumann to compare my mics against, but the listening tests on his website are stunning. I've had my SDC's a few months, they havent failed at all (but they aren't old). They do sound great. I much prefer them over my shure sm81 (which is a good mic anyway) for acoustic guitars. I think the question should more be 'Do I want a Neumann or an AKG?'. Then you say Neumann...but you dont have the money....so you think, well, Ill have to go back to the AKG anyways...but this is an alternative...
A good question is, so why doesnt it cost nearly as much as a Neumann? I'm in the middle of building a summing mixer that is pretty much similar to a Folcrom. The Folcrom sells for $750. My summing mixer is costing about £70 to make.
In a similar way, I reckon a Neumann costs so much because:
1. You are buying a Name. World famous, reliable, looks super impressive on e.g. a studio website to say you have a cabinet full of Neumann's. Everyone wants to record on a Neumann.
2. Neumann have obviously spent a lot of time researching to build and make the best mics
With oktavamod, he is only changing the critical components to get that neumann sound. It's not a name and it still retains whatever of your original mic is good, so in the end the total components are a bit cheaper. You are basically paying him for the components and the time to put it together, no bells and whistles and no 'Name' to drive up the price
Ok, sounds like an advert, but I do reckon its a great thing. When Im richer Ill get my NT1-A modded as its just getting dusty
IMO the changes are giving you a mic with a more expensive sound than you have paid for.
Then again, I would still like to have some mics that are the original
. Modding mics to get close to super expensive mic's is a good idea IMO, but modding mics to get toward a sub 1000 pound mic is maybe not such a good idea
I dont have a great answer for why not just a £400 mic? Other than the idea of the mods is that you getting a sound that would be >£1000 to buy the original. OF course, there are some really good £400 mics out there...