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Dan Tries Out the Shure SM4 Condenser Mic

The company promises natural audio and good protection from interference

I was glad to get the opportunity to test Shure’s new SM4 microphone. The company markets it as a home recording mic for vocals and instruments; could it find a place in your station or home studio?

Just as you have your Chevy people and your Ford people, broadcasters have their favorite speakers, headphones and microphones. To be frank, I often have chosen another manufacturer’s mics, so I can say I am not biased towards Shure. 

I’ve been using and testing the mic for more than three weeks. I do voice work, as do both of my daughters, and we’ve put the SM4 through some tough testing with variations in voice and delivery.

The author holds the pop filter.

First, let’s talk about the tech. Specs listed for all mics can often be “generous,” and let’s face it, a spec doesn’t really give you a real impression of the sound. This is a condenser mic, so it needs phantom power. It has a cardioid pattern, and its specs show it at 20 to 20,000 Hz. Impedance is 150 ohms with output of 1 Pa = 94 dB SPL on a XLR connection. It weighs a little over one pound and is made of die-cast zinc. 

The mic comes in a nice, well-padded case and includes a shock mount that holds it in the correct position for use. Unlike the SM7 or the EV RE20, you address this mic from the side pick-up, more like the AT2020. 

As the shock mount holds the mic in the correct position and the included pop filter shows where to talk, you shouldn’t have an issue with inexperienced people addressing it from the end and thus being completely off-axis. Between the mic’s internal pop filtering and the external filter, it handles plosives with no issue.

It’s robust and solidly built. The shock mount is a thread-on style rather than using a set-screw or other means of attachment, and it’s solid. The mic, when attached, is not going to fall off. 

Shure did something I haven’t seen, using a “tongue and groove” approach to attach the wind screen; it’s easy to place but stays there.

Now to a much more subjective opinion. Under the testing of three voices, it has done a very nice job handling my lower voice and louder delivery as well as my daughters’ upper range and less “force” to delivery. 

The output is hot but not distorted, and between the mic itself and wind screen, it can handle a loud input. Highs are crisp and clean, and Shure’s graph on the output shows a boost in the high end above about 9 kHz through about 16 kHz. The EQ graph reflects the mic’s output realistically. There is no roll-off switch or other control on the mic.

Shure claims exceptional RF rejection so I tried a dial-in call to my cell to see if I’d hear the “wireless chatter” that can interfere. I wanted to see if that claim was legit, and it is. It was clean.

I also put it right up against my dual-mode wireless switch (2.4 and 5 GHz) and I hear nothing. (To be fair on knowing WHAT picks up the RF, I went direct from the mic’s XLR output directly into an XLR-to-USB converter, to avoid using a mic cable that might act like an antenna.) 

I’m not in an AM RF hot zone, but I do suspect that it handles all RF equally as well.

The pattern produced very good audio rejection on the back side. Considering I did this test in a living room and not a recording studio, it performed well in a generally unhospitable recording environment. 

The mic comes with extra bands for the shock mount, plus the thread adapter for post-style supports.

I have no negative feedback to offer. My testing was with the mindset of using it for voice work, though based on the response and sound, I could see this mic used with acoustic guitars and some string and wind instruments. Shure shows the mic in the company of a guitar in many of its marketing photos.

I’ve worked with a lot of mics over the years, including SM7s, Telefunken tube mics (in recording studios in Spain), RCA 44s and 77s, Audio-Technicas, many different Electro-Voice mics, even Neumann 87s and a few others. My own collection of about six mics includes a shotgun, large-diaphragm mics, EV RE320s and Chinese knock-offs. 

This SM4 is a respectable and impressive mic retailing for $269 with shock mount or $199 without. (I recommend the mount; it’s well made and helps the user address the mic from the correct position, plus it provides great isolation from boom arms and mic stands.) 

With an affordable price that is yet above “entry level,” this would be a good studio mic for guests, talent or in production, and most certainly a home studio.

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