Since the headphones or speakers used in playback may significantly affect the evaluation
Of course… But the idea is to compare the relative sound of one mic to the others. It’s probably best if you choose one or two of the best (or more expensive mics) as the reference and compare the others to the reference top get a feel for the diffrence, rather than trying to judge the overall sound of each mic. It’s just too bad it’s only the mics from one manufacturer.
The main difference in the way mics “sound” is the frequency response, and if you don’t have the perfect mic for every situation, you can do a LOT with equalization. I suppose it’s nice if you have a pro studio and you can have a “mic locker” with just the right mic for every occasion. But for home recording, you can usually get-by with one or two good mics and EQ.
Directional large diaphragm condenser mics are used for almost everything in “the studio”. The Shure SM57 (same as an SM58 without the ball-screen) is probably the only dynamic (non-condenser) commonly used in pro studios. It’s often used in front of a guitar amp, or to mic a snare. But for home recording, an SM57/58 is not a terrible choice. After all, it is the most popular mic of all time!
Condenser mics tend to have better high-frequency response than dynamic mics. i.e. They tend to be “brighter” or have more “sparkle”. Small-diaphragm condensers tend to be “brighter” than large-diaphragm condensers, so they are often used as drum overheads to pick-up the cymbals.
You can also get condenser mics with patterns switches (cardioid, omni, figure-8), pad switches (to knock-down loud sounds), and sometimes filter-switches to roll-off the low or high end. It’s usually the electronics in a condenser that gets overloaded with loud sounds, so this isn’t such a big problem with dynamic mics. i.e. The SM57/58 doesn’t have a pad, but it’s is almost impossible to overload.
Flat, ommnidirectional, instrumentation microphones have the “best specs”, but they are rarely used for studio recording.
Microphones are not noisy. The signal from a moving coil (Dynamic) microphone has molecular-level noise – effectively zero. The mic preamp, soundcard, or mixer however are insanely noisy and it’s the dance between them that determines how hissy your performance is.
If you are getting a strong signal into the mic (such as a singer with a strong voice, within a few inches of the mic), acoustic room noise if is often the major noise source, even in “soundproof” studios. And, condenser mics do have electronics that contribute some noise.
…and on location recording.
As Koz says, this is very tricky. Virtually all on-location movie dialog is re-recorded in the studio, and all sound effects are also re-created in the studio. When that’s not possible (such as live newscasts) they just have to get the mic as close as possible to increase the signal part of the S/N ratio, and some noise usually gets through… Sometimes the noise is not too noticeable (the viewer/listener expects some background-environmental noise), and sometimes it’s terrible and distracting (such bad wind noise, a barking dog, or a loud siren).
P.S.
Probably any AKG mic will be acceptable for most applications… Or just about any “studio condenser” that costs around $100 USD or more. Just avoid “computer gaming” mics, or other super cheap mics and you should be OK.
I’d guess the “sweet spot” is around $300. Above that you might not get “better” sound" or you might have to pay a lot more to get slightly better sound… Although, just about every mic sounds different, so you might like the sound of a more expensive mic, or a less expensive mic. A good mic with switches, or other “features”, and a shock mount could run twice as much.
