I found the Revelation Mini FET to sound rich, warm and close to the sound of the tube version but more flexible in uses around the studio because of its diminutive size. It is about two-thirds the size of the tube mic and yet still looks impressive with its hefty midnight blue body and black chrome grill/mesh.

There is a 32-mm diameter, center-terminated, gold-sputtered capsule using a low noise, discrete transistorized amplifier circuit that uses a hand-selected FET and capacitors. Another pro feature is a choice of three attenuators or pads. For most vocals and acoustic instruments, the 0dB position is great and then either the -10dB or -20dB position works great for putting the mic close to loud sources: guitar cabs, brass, percussion, or even kick drums.

I tried the cardioid pattern-only Mini FET on vocals, acoustic guitar and electric guitar amp cabinets with excellent results. It comes in a nice carrying case with a compact shock mount that allowed me to position it just where I wanted it in front my guitar cab's speaker.

MXL Microphones Revelation Mini FET sells for $229.95 MSRP and makes an awesome first studio microphone purchase.