If anyone wants to know what is best for what, all I can say is "one mans treasure is another mans garbage" The SDC tube should have a low proximity effect, due to the porting below the capsule. Last time I had one order from Austrailia, he paid for the mic and I am still waiting for the payment for shipping.It was one ribbon mic, 5 pound package, and the shipping was $23.00, by air from here to austrailia. so you can do the math and see if it is worth the cost. The tube mics have removable tubes, and the multi pattern will still be 9 position. The varible with volt meter won't be ready in time. They were doing some show in Germany and before that, they had a 2 or 3 week holiday, so you can see, it takes a lot of time