Re: Shure 545's

[PL500@xxxxxxx]

Andrew,
Do the newer mics sound bad because of the XLR connector?

and

I have heard that the 545 underwent some kind of change, and that the new
ones do not sound nearly as good for harmonica as the older ones.  I cannot
comment personally on this, not having played a recently manufactured 545.
It is my impression, though, that the change, whatever it was, came some
time after Shure went from a 4-pin connector to an XLR.

fjm speaks the truth.  His 545 had more output than my thirty year old one
and had a nice fat sound.  But, fjm, when was that one made, if you know?
You said it was given to you.  Is there any way to date it?
=============================================================
Hello,

No, The XLR jack doesn't make the newer Shure 545SD's sound bad, it is the 
element that they are using. In design it maybe the same element but the quality 
of that element might be lacking. The Shure 2 545SD's which I got are the 
best sounding harp mics I have used. Both of these mics have XLR jacks on them, 
and IMHO opinion outsound every other 545 I have used (and I have used alot of 
Shure 545's).  I don't know about output and I don't really care about output, 
mostly because it seems to have very little to do with how the mic sounds 
IMHO. 
What seems to matter is how well the microphone tends to handle and 
compensate frequency ranges for the harmonica. I have mics that have WAY more output 
than my Shure 545SD's but I would use the Shure 545SD's over them anyday of the 
week for how they sound. Remember its not how much the mic drives the amp 
(Most harp players play with way too much distortion anyway), but how the mic 
handles the overall sound of the harmonica. 
In short its nice to know that in 1971 they were making Shure 545SD's with 
XLR connectors, that explains alot. 

Andrew