Watch out for fake Shure microphones !

Did you know many popular Shure models including the SM57 and 58 and Beta 57 and 58 are illegally manufactured and sold around the world as authentic products ? If not, you are not alone. This problem, which affects many pro audio manufacturers, is largely unknown among musicians and pro audio professionals.

Despite all superficial similarities to authentic Shure products, counterfeits, on average, use much lower quality materials and are very unreliable, much less rugged, and offer significantly lower performance and sound quality. Counterfeits are also not covered by Shure’s warranty policy should you need it.

A few weeks ago we did the test for you with a Beta58 we ordered on the internet. At first sight these two microphones seem very similar. After a closer inspection, and compared with the original microphone, we find however a number of important differences…

Find the 9 differences :

1) The grill is slightly different and the foam inside the grill is much thinner with the fake version. If you keep the grill to the light you see the difference immediately. The thinner foam results in a higher sensibility for moisture and wind noises.

2) The blue ring of the original microphone is thinner and made of high quality rubber. The fake microphone has a slightly different color and is obviously made of regular plastic.

3) The logo on the fake Beta58 has been engraved very negligently and "BETA 58A" is badly readable.

4) This part of the microphone has a slightly different color and it weighs less than the real microphone.

5) The original Beta58 uses a high quality connector with gold plated contacts and the output is symmetrical. The fake one uses low cost connectors and his output is asymmetrical ! The - and the ground are just connected together so think about the results when using this microphone over long cable lengths. Moreover the fake microphones housing is not grounded at the connector.

6) Although the microphone cells externally look similar the fake one sounds less defined than the original one. This is caused by the poor frequency range of the fake microphone. So if your brand new Shure microphone doesn't sound like it should this could be the an indication that you have bought a fake one.

7) The suspension of the fake Beta microphone is very bad and too stiff. This results in a high sensibility for handling noise.

8) The propeller wire of the original microphone is not painted which creates a good grounding between the grill and the body. The fake one is painted because there is no grounding of the microphone anyhow.

9) An original Shure microphone can allways be recognised by it's control stamp on top of the microphone cel. This stamp indicates the initials of the person that carried out the quality control. When we look at our fake microphone the stamp is not present. On top of that the foam on top of the cel is much thinner, also resulting in higher sensibility for wind and pop noises.

We hope these differences give you reason enough to watch out for fake microphones. It should be a pity to give your good money to these counterfeits. But how can you know wether the microphone you are going to buy is real ?

Distinguish real from fake...

Most of the time these microphones are sold via the internet. This of course hampers the possibility to check the product immediately. But if the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

Be cautious when buying from on-line dealers and/or on-line auction sites like eBay, tweedehands.be, Yez.be,... especially when :
- prices offered are well below the market average. Don’t get taken by “Certificates of Originality” or guarantees that are offered. They too are often as fake as the counterfeits.
- you are shopping for SM or Beta models.
- products are shipped from Asia particularly if stated that products were purchased from a Shure factory.

To reduce the risk of buying a counterfeit product, buy from an authorised Shure dealer whether on-line or in their shop. We can advise you of the dealers in your vicinity. Shure is committed to protecting you by protecting their brand and intellectual property They will use the law against any sales of counterfeit product, be it via resellers or internet platforms. Shure is not only watching, but actively working to rid the marketplace of any substandard product to protect the Shure reputation which our customers rely on. Full information on Shure’s activities against counterfeiting can be found here.

Je suis toujours étonné de voir les SM58 partir à 70-80 euros alors qu'il vaut 105 euros en neuf.