Why it's best: The Bottle Microphone, is Blue's flagship mic. It adds low noise and amazing transient response together with eight optional interchangeable capsules, called the Bottle Caps. These capsules can be exchanged to provide different tonal characteristics and pickup patterns. The mics has a Class A amplifier and a hand-selected EF86 pentode vacuum tube in triode mode. Blue’s model 9610, the mic’s power supply, has a soft start feature. The 9610 has a custom built meter to monitor the tube strength. See more reviews, photos, prices, and specs
Why it's a best pick: The Neumann U87 studio microphone has a warm sound and even characteristics. It is equipped with a large dual-diaphragm capsule with three different selectable directional patterns – omnidirectional, cardioid, and figure-8. A 10dB attenuation switch allows the U87 to handle sound levels up to 127dB without distorting. It has a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz, with its impedance rated at 200 ohms. The Shockmount includes a windscreen, cable, EA87 elastic suspension, and comes in a wooden box. See more reviews, photos, prices, and specs
Why it's a best pick: Neumann makes so many quality mics that its hard to have a list like this without a couple of their products. The Neumann M 147 Tube is a vacuum tube condenser microphone with cardioid characteristics. There is a K 47 dual diaphragm capsule taken from its predecessors, the U 47 and the M 49. Its mixture of current tube technology with advanced solid-state allows it to feed really long microphone cables without affecting the quality of the signal. See more reviews, photos, prices, and specs
Why it's a best pick: The EH-TM from Electro-Harmonix is a bottle-style tube microphone that gives users three polar patterns, cardioid, omni-directional, and figure eight. It has dual large, 1.5 micron thick gold sputtered diaphragms and a Russian 6C15P tube in its preamplifier circuitry. It includes a Class A power supply, and a shockmount, along with a sturdy case. Its XY and AB patterns are great when the EH-TM is used in stereo pairs. See more reviews, photos, prices, and specs
Why it's a best pick: The Audix SCX25A-MP large diaphragm condenser microphone has an isolated capsule from the mic body and electronics. This reduces acoustic reflections and diffractions. It has a frequency response of 20 Hz - 20 kHz. The SCX25A condenser mic has a wide cardioid polar pattern and one-inch gold vapor capsule. The SCX25A can deal with sound pressure levels up to 135 dB and give 20 dB of ambient noise rejection. See more reviews, photos, prices, and specs
you have got to be kidding me. If you have even used a microphone before you wouldn't ever consider rating them. Microphones are extremely subjective to the style of music the character of the sound that you are recording and what you are going for. To rate the Blue Mic as the best recording microphone you have got to be insane.