Thinking of buying a WA-251 from an acquaintance who is selling some of her home studio gear because she's going abroad.

I've read (and heard) mixed reviews of WA's mics, but this one is supposedly pretty good. She really likes it at least. I'm sure it sounds nothing like the original that it's based on, but that's not really anything I'm concerned about. I'm just looking for a smooth and balanced vocal mic that works well on both male and female vocals. I mostly have more modern sounding vocal mics (Lewitt 440, Austrian Audio OC18, Shure SM7B, plus some other cheaper ones) so I figured that a more "vintage" voiced LDC could be a good investment.

Does anyone here own, have owned, or otherwise have experience with a WA-251? Am I better off just buying a Neumann TLM or AKG414?

 

Hopefully being offered at a good price. Warm Audio products almost always need a little help on either side (recording & mxing).
They do however get the job done in most situations. Are there better options? For sure. A little in-depth research will reveal very useful info going forward.

Here is an interesting comparison (starts @ 13:49)

 

€550, so not a super-deal perhaps. Like I said; I'm more interested in knowing if the mic is worth €550 and not has any major flaws, rather than if it sounds close to the original. However, I think it fared very well in that comparison considering the price difference! I like the Microphone Parts a bit better, but I don't think I would be able to build one of those kits. The price of shipping to Sweden is probably quite steep as well.

I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow. She just asked me first if I was interested since we live closeby, and I'm sure she will get it sold quickly if I decide not to buy it. Thanks for your advice!

 

Last edited: Dec 7, 2022

I love my WA-251. Folks I’ve loaned it to usually go buy their own.

 

I think the more relevant question is whether you really need an omnidirectional, cardioid, figure eight mic.
Because if you only need the cardioid option, it's better to consider something like https://microtechgefell.de/mikrofon?wl=157-M930#

However nowadays the condenser microphones do not have a big difference in sound anymore. They are all very clean with a little bump in the high fequencies.

 

If it does what you need and/or you can recover the cost reasonably quickly, the value lies somewhere there.

 

I agree with you here. I don't think I've ever shot a Warm Audio product out against something similarly priced and chosen it. I've never used the 251, which very well could be different, but I have tried their guitar pedals (poor quality control and lackluster sound), one of their compressors (good but I preferred the golden age comp-2a over it), and their u87 and AKG clones (preferred other brands like Origin, Audio Technica, etc).
Anyway, who cares what I think when you can go to audio test kitchen and actually listen to whole tracks recorded with all these mics we're talking about and compare them directly. Such a cool site: https://app.audiotestkitchen.com/

 

I bought mine in used but pristine condition for CHF 700. It's a fantastic mic on both acoustic instruments and I guess most voices (no mic works for all, not even a $10,000 one). It has a very useful proximity effect which one can use to EQ the low end of the source through crafty placement and has a GREAT off axis tone. I also have a Gefell UMT70S which I adore. Gefell prices in Europe are much lower than in the States just so you know.

Also, although it might be small in stature don't let it's diminutive size fool you...this mic sounds huge.

 

been using mine for the last 1,5 year now. it's a great sounding mic and ofcourse it's different from the original. I use it mainly vocals but have been recording guitars and strings on it as well. I switched out the original tube with a electroharmonix and it now it sounds exactly how I wanted to be.

ofcourse there are better "clones" but I'm really surprised about this one. definitely from all the other mics you have this would be a step up for sure.