Terrence and Klaus,
This is my first post so please go easy on me. Recently I purchased 2 Church 47 microphones and wanted to know more about these mics so I started doing research and found some interesting information. I wanted to share my research with others so I started a website called
http://church47.com Terrence had asked about value so I will put it this way: to me a microphone is a paint brush for music engineers and producers to "paint with sound".
1. Value- WOW- Does the mic make you say wow when you hear it?
2. Time- Do you have to spend time with eq and twisting knobs to get the sound you like?
3. Replacement- Can you replace the mic? (reissues or clones- how much do they cost?)
4. Number of mics- How many Church 47 mics are there? (my latests count is 35.)
I have also found over the last few months there are different versions of the mic and Stanley Church continued to evolve his microphone. It seems to me like the church mic is the American hot rod. I remember building hot rods when I was 16 and taking a Porsche and placing a V6 with a paxton supercharger in it.
Getting the handling of the German engineering but having an American motor in it. The Porsche can not be valued as a Porsche but a hot rod. Since most of the Church mics sound different that I have come across, listen and make your own value judgement. I will be doing some recording with the various Church 47s I have found and make them available to listen to as well as putting my Church mic in the rental house so people can make their own judgement.
-johnny