These mics are insane! I was so curious about the very low price that had to buy them just to test what they were and to see if they actually work. Was very sceptical before testing but these do actually work and they are pretty fine mics actually just to have on hand when you suddenly want to add one more mic or need a small mic to replace a large one which just does not fit the right position. And if you absolutely cannot get more expensive mics then get at least these and you have always something on hand which works fine as extra mic.
One can definitely hear they are lower end of the price range and one can figure from the noise level that they are not high end stuff. But they are actually pretty good mics for supporting other mics and they do work well enough for acoustic guitar type of instruments too if budget is tight.
Surprisingly I did not get pleasing sound with bowed psaltery type of instruments or violin or pretty much anything bowed. Felt muddy and sloppy (low definition) compared to better mics from 90 euros upwards. So bowed stuff is not good for these, you need much more clarity and higher quality mic for that. Guitar and guitalele perfectly fine though of course there is better mics. My AT2031 is definitely much better for both guitar and guitalele and works very nicely on bowed instruments too but it is over 6 times the price of these Behringers and you may still need a second or third mic suddenly so still have a lot of use for these.
They worked pretty ok for tongue drum as stereo pair. I would want a tiny bit more clarity for that use but they were perfectly ok and with reverb and eq sounded quite nice.
Pros:
+ really low price. Incredible bargain. You get two well working mics, the clips and plastic stereo bar for almost nothing. I would have these on hand just to have extra mics even if you use something else most of the time.
+ work pretty well on "normal instruments". Small size, easy to throw in the last minute to get a extra mic or two when you need one quickly. No need to go to the store to buy some expensive extra mic because you can have these with you always. big benefit which is entirely because of the cheap price. you can't stock expensive extra mics but easy to do that on low-cost ones.
+ low price --> no hesitation to use on risky situations and you have a backup if something goes wrong. Perfect for helping out a friend who lost their mics because it is not the end of the world if they manage to break these or forget to return them for 4 months
+ has accessories included to get them working out of the box. the accessories are perfectly usable even when cheap-ish plastic. nice to have backup accessories which often fit other mics and can be borrowed from this kit
+ metal mic body is suprisingly solid feeling, feels well made and the finishing looked pretty good
+ they seemed to match ok. I would not expect them to at this price range but they were perfectly ok
+ worked quite well on acoustic guitar, tongue drum and guitalele. pretty ok on Irish bouzouki but did not catch the shimmering sound of that instrument the way I would have liked so I think the bouzouki needs other microphone to sound good
+ noise levels were pretty OK. one can hear they are not top end mics but they did work fine on most uses. not good for really silent sources though.
Cons:
- surprisingly muddy on bowed instruments. Not enough definition by my opinion. Not unusable but disappointing.
- worked well on nylon string guitar-type instruments but steel strings were not as good I think though perfectly usable. These feel to easily lose the "shimmer" of steel strings. Irish bouzouki with its very wide echoing shimmering sound sounded a muddy and was way better on other mics. These become muddy if having any kind of bright shimmering instrument or bowed instrument or anything which relies on high frequencies clarity and definition, if wanting mic for that then would definitely use something else
- on some cases they felt suddenly a little noisier than normal out of nowhere, then it went away at some point without clear reason. Not sure what caused it, was it warming up or some other reason. Not large difference but easy to notice at high gain when it was otherwise silent
Overall these are great for starting-out mics or backup mics or supplement mics which cost almost nothing to have with you and then can be put to action at short notice when needing extra mic or two. If you can afford this C2 kit and even one other slightly more expensive mic then you can already do a lot and get is sounding nice most of the time because if some instrument sounds muddy on the C2's then the better mic helps to bring some clarity back.
These are good mics with some reservations: by my opinion, not good for low-volume instruments or stuff which needs high-frequency clarity and definition. These are best when they supplement another microphones which do have lots of clarity and definition and in that case they fit wider range of instruments because you can get the "shimmering sounds" with other mics and use these to get the body sound or as stereo pair to get some extra channels to add width and adjustment possibilities to the mix.
