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Behringer ECMPRO
My Earthworks M23R is not working right so I have to send it to Sweetwater for several weeks. I sure hope they get it fixed, it was a pretty big deal for me to pull the trigger on that purchase. 
I bought the new Behringer ECMPRO a few months ago but hadn't hooked it up.
I took a bunch of measurements 2 weeks ago before the EW started acting funny. Wanting to get this project done I will try to use the Behringer to wrap things up. My measurement rig is setup to be able to make pretty repeatable measurements. The ECMPRO does not have a calibration file and is supposed to measure out to 40kHz. I figured I would measure the speaker and make a calibration file to finish things up.
What the F@#!
Earthworks M23R $600 in blue
Behringer ECMPRO $40 in red - NO CALIBRATION FILE
I'll do more thorough testing and test distortion when I get the EW back, but just had to post this comparison.
Comments
Holey mother of !!! . . . Looking forward to your further findings, David!
Can you do the same comparison to include the OmniMic V2 mic too, please?
Looks like you'll have to set up a Behringer ECMPRO calibration service when you get the EW back!!
It's not calibrated. That's the $40 ECMPRO... out of the box! No calibration file!
@kenrhodes - did you compare yours to another mic?
The ECM pro is cheap and feels like it is really well built. I have only used mine to do room eq but did give me close results to my omni v2.
That is very interesting to see. Might be a cheap way for people to get into 2-channel measurements. I doubt it can handle the same input level as the Earthworks but for basic measurements and lower level distortion testing (under 100db) it will be absolutely adequate. Nice find!
+/-1dB to 10kHz, increasing to +/-2dB >10kHz, not bad. Sample size of 1 so hopefully this mic has some consistency unit to unit. It claims to be an electret condenser mic, not a MEMS mic, so I don't have very high hopes for it to be useful for distortion with such a small low cost condenser capsule. Unfortunately I couldn't find a vendor for this mic in Canada.
One thing you can do for distortion evaluation on a budget, is use two fairly low cost mics, rather than spend a lot on a single mic that does it all. Just like speaker drivers, surface area is king, so what you really need for low distortion recording is a larger condenser. You can use a large condenser studio mic, but generally they have a cardioid pattern meaning there will be a proximity effect, so frequency response will be dependent on distance. You can use simple substitution method with a cheap small condenser (like ECM PRO) to calibrate the response of the large condenser for a given distance, or in many cases the relative level of
I have found the low cost Behringer B-5 mic is quite well suited for distortion measurements, as long as you can overlook a bit of 60Hz hum. It comes with both an omni and cardioid capsule at 18mm diameter, much larger than your average "measurement" mic, and you can use it in conjunction with a good cheap linear mic like ECM PRO to calibrate it would be an option for a low cost setup for both frequency response and distortion capabilities. Unfortunately, it looks like the B-5 may have been discontinued, so if you want one and see it available, grab one while supplies last.
I don't have the OmniMic v2 so wouldn't be able to test it.
There is a chance I will get 3 more ECMPRO's so I can at least add a few more observations.
I forgot that I also took distortion measurements two weeks ago with my EW - at 31.5mm with pretty good calibrated SPL, so I should be able to take distortion measurements of the ECMPRO. It would be "nice" if the distortion is okay, but I'm not expecting much. But if distortion is better than the calibrated EMM-6 and about as good as the uncalibrated ECM8000, this will be an awfully good budget mic .