Well, I had been curious about this little mic for quite some time and, especially given the price point, I had to get one. The BLUE Bluebird is quite a stunning looking little microphone that it is well made and has a heft and weight to it that means it would be good in hand-to-hand combat.

I was a bit disappointed when I found out that this mic is made in China, as opposed to the formerly Latvian made mics, but that is par for the course for many companies. Since BLUE has split from their Latvian manufacturing facility, we will begin to see more and more of this as they split manufacturing between the U.S. and China. But, at least the build quality doesn't seem to have suffered. Neither has the sound.

Yes, the Bluebird is a little bright, but not overly so. I'm reserving final judgement on the mic until I have had more time with it, but it seems to have a full sound, a little brightness, but with body and no harshness, and also has a huge proximity effect. If you want to get in close with this mic you had better be prepared for the sound! I tried some voiceover work with it and, when I moved in close, I felt as if I was the typical FM radio DJ swallowing an RE-20 for a cheezy station ID promo. It does get boomy! But, moving away from the mic a bit I found a clean, crisp (but scooped) sound that should function well on most sources, which is exactly how BLUE is promoting this mic. For the price to performance ratio, I'm not sure why this mic hasn't taken off any more than it has!

It is very popular with the home studio crowd and is a nice step up from anything else in this price range or lower. Hardly any mic in the under $300 category can touch this thing. Once you get above the $500 mark there are several mics which would sound better on individual sources, but then you might need four or five of those to keep the same level of flexibility. The Bluebird seems to be equally good on many things I've tested so far.

I would not shy away from using this mic on many sources. It may not be the best of each category, but it's the best of the all around category in this price range. On some sources it seems to really shine, especially saxophone, guitars, and some voices. On other sources, it's still good enough to work.

Verdict: I have to say, I like it! Clear, clean, flexible, and I can't deny the cool factor when propping this thing up in front of a vocalist. Sure, it's not a Bottle, but it costs less than 1/10th the price of a Bottle and still manages to get into some of that territory (the Bluebird apparently uses the B8 capsule, which is also available for the Bottle and the Bottle Rockets). But, as with any mic, try it before you buy it. For $299 US, I just bought it and I don't think I'll be letting go of this little workhorse.