And just to emphasize that point, I think the failure of some of the old mic companies and a couple of the newer ones is that they are not working in concert with certain end user engineers, who really know how to give feedback. I know that there are some fantastic designers at some of these old companies, but I can't see how the ears of some people might have been used, upon hearing any of the mics they've offered in the last fifteen years. There are a couple of companies who have made improvements due to my unsolicited, and unwelcomed feedback. Imagine if when designing these mics, they actually sent prototypes to working engineers, who know what the great mics sound like, and got feedback. I'm having a really hard time believing that they are doing that.
A friend of mine is the main guide for Tree Tops Lodge in Kenya. Mercedes flew in three prot0ypes of the ML320, when they were developing that. They gave them to my friend and said, "break them." My friend and his cohorts proceeded to drive them into the ground, and then Mercedes came back, analyzed what went wrong, and improved their designs.
That's the type of teutonic attempt at perfection I expect from these mic companies, but I guess we won't see again.