Shure KSM 9 HS

Like most people I started with the live singing through an SM58. It was reliable and you knew exactly what you'd get. I play mostly in a pretty loud electronic rock band, but started taking my vocals a lot more seriously as we progressed and got better equipment and bigger stages. Since then I've run through quite a variety of vocal mics, both dynamic, though more and more condensers. Always liked Shure build quality and the Beta-87A was a nice step-up for a while.

Then I got hold of the Neumann KM105 and the quality and ease of singing was a revelation. Often hardly needed much in the way of EQ. Problem was that mic just wouldn't reject feedback and was so fussy with monitor set ups. Even though we use IEM on bigger stages, we mostly like some stage monitors as well for the feel of volume. I think the KM105 probably is the end of your search if you play acoustically or with a quieter band. I really, really rate it.

But then after struggling with my KM105 and going back to the Shure Beta87 a live engineer recommended trying the new Shure KSM 9 HS - he felt it was very close to the KM105 but the feedback rejection was far superior and the slightly flatter response might suit my voice. So bought from Thomann. Don't have the stores round my area to try these out, so was bought more in hope than expectation.

Safe to say, the other review is spot on. The same sort of ease of singing as the very best condenser microphones, but able to handle insane SPL and stage volume without feedback. Far less fussy about monitor placement than the KM105. If you wanted to get ultra-fussy you'd say the Neumann is more 'airy' and the Shure more 'silky' but to most people they wouldn't sound vastly different - it's just a lot easier to use the KSM 9 HS (in hypercardioid mode) on loud stages and, personally, the Shure build quality looks a bit more rugged to me.

Oddly the KSM 9 HS looks a lot simpler than most of Shure's line-up. For their premiere live vocal microphone, it's not got the obvious bling factor of it's rivals, but it's quality is all in the build and sound.

Some people will find the pattern switch between Hyper-C and sub-C is a bit of a leap compared to the older KSM 9 Regular-C and Super-C and I've heard some people complain that you have to open the mic up to make the switch with no outside visible way of telling which pattern is active - but I feel that any external switching would make it too easy to knock live. YMMV.

But if you play loud, especially if you play an instrument and sing too, this is the best mic you can get.

i recently bought neumann kms105 shure ksm8 and shure ksm 9 hs..

i am very satisfied from all as a better sound choice i choose neumann kms105 but for very very hard and dificult situations i mean bad places bad speaker place very easy to get feedback from mics i choose the ksm 9 hs on hypercardioid

Pros
Very good high end quality sound
The best anti feedback microphone.. i got no feedback at all even in the worst set up places..
I very often have live events in small bars which has many many people in there.. and the speakers are in very very bad place with any other microphone i would have feedback.. i got many beta 58s sm 58s neumann kms 105 and 104... all these would have a lot feedback in these places.. the ksm9 hs in hypercardioid pattern its very very hard get feedback... i fully recommend

for us here in greece that we play music on 2 high db over 130 db @1m the ksm 9 hs i think is the best choice it is very very dificult to get feedback from this microphone.

Microphone itself comes in a really nice metal box which protects it from outer world (including falling on the ground; haven't tested that yet:)) You get an original grey Shure holder which is nothing special, but it fits perfectly to this microphone, sometimes even too tight. It requires a phantom power to operate. I was a bit skeptic at the first sight, ok, I have a new mic, it looks nice, have a really nice box,…but would it do the job it was bought for…at first I had set a volume as others on mixing table as I had microphone in Hyper-cardioid mode (we are trying to get to the point where we have volume/gain set just under feedback); btw, others are using SM58 and Beta 58A which are really good microphones in my opinion…and I could feel the difference at the first tone..more defined, easier to pronounce spoken words, you could almost speak, not sing a song…singing became easier…and then the magic happened? I wanted to know how much this feature »almost no feedback« is true. I asked my band buddy if he could raise volume of my microphone till it will feedback and the volume was very high before this happened (we have a small rehearsal place). It is easier to sing at that volumes (believe me, other won’t let you be at that higher volumes comparing to them?) I can not more than recommend this microphone as it is almost incomparable to others microphones, which are largely used in bands. We are playing loud and I mean playing really loud at our rehearsal place and I can sing through all the instruments w/o a problem. I’m not using wide cardioid mode a lot, if I’m alone or if I record just singing, other than that, it just picks up all the sounds in the same room and that doesn’t suits my needs. Just try this microphone and you will never look back.