When I reviewed the Samson C1 capacitor mic, which used a back-electret capsule, I found it to be slightly noisy, but the CL7 compares well in this respect with its contemporaries, and it is certainly quiet enough for all typical studio applications. Tonally it is surprisingly solid and neutral, with plenty of definition, and it works nicely on acoustic guitar as well as vocals. Furthermore, as it has a well-extended low-end response (when the low-cut switch isn’t being used), it also has sufficient range to work with bass instruments.
While more expensive mics may offer greater transparency, the CL7 is capable of making very high-quality recordings, and any imperfections it may have are likely to be outweighed by the acoustic imperfections of the typical home-studio recording environment. In other words, while more money will always buy you more microphone, once you get past a certain quality level, the mic may no longer be the weakest link in your recording chain.
To put things into perspective, the CL7 costs rather less than a good dynamic stage microphone, yet will give far better results on most sources when used in studio conditions. Its performance is comparable with that of other decent budget Chinese capacitor mics, but the cost has been kept down by offering simpler packaging and by selling the shockmount as an option. As an entry-level capacitor mic, the CL7 is a bit of a bargain in the UK — though certainly not without competition from other Chinese-built brands. It is also good enough to be used as a secondary mic in much more serious recording applications, so it will still be useful when you eventually progress to a more up-market main mic.
