The Vanguard V13 is amazing. Extremely forgiving on vocals. The stock tube needs no replacement. Lush and smooth yet compresses just right. There are a lot of companies who claim that their mic under $1k sounds like a $3k+ mic. It’s usually not true at all. In this case it is. Top end as smooth as the best out there. Midrange with presence and roundness but no weird peaks you have to notch out. Low end is firm, focused and full. Lastly, it’s build well and looks amazing. You can’t ask for much more these days. Hats off to Derek and the rest of the Vanguard crew for coming out with such a stunning product at the most reasonable price imaginable.”

“I felt the need to get my first tube mic & did quite a bit of on-line research to find the holy grail. It had to be critically reviewed, accepted as a great tool on all levels of the industry, be useful as an all-around excellent mic and it had to be priced reasonably. Pretty tough criteria. I also did the best I could to listen to any audio & video sources I could find. The Vanguard V13 tube mic kept topping my lists. The V13 is just an exceptional product. First of all, very, very low noise. Just excellent all-around specs. It has what I consider to give uncanny presence to any source; but it’s not because of any exaggerated frequency response errors – it really has none that I can pinpoint. It just feels accurate with an eerie focus on the source. Perhaps that is the “tubey” quality that many rave about. I’d have no reservations using this mic in any situation I can think of coming through my studio. It looks amazing and feels very solid.”

“I bought this mic and it is so good for the price you would think it cost over 5000. I say this as recently bought a Brauner VM1 Microphone, for those that don’t know about this mic is, just Google it. The v13 holds up against the VM1 and in some cases sounds better depending on the vocalist. My advice is to buy the V13 and test before you buy another tube mic as I am 1000% sure you will be happy with it, plus when you hear it you will ask yourself do you really need to spend 5000 for a mic. At least try it as you will be happy you did!”

“Folks love to talk about value in a cost vs. performance way. As if a mic can be held to a lower standard if it costs less than others. To me, if a mic doesn’t perform it doesn’t matter what it costs, it will have no value. I had high hopes for the V13, and it delivers. The fit and finish are fantastic, and the tone is amazing. Saying that you will not be disappointed is an understatement. You will be amazed at the sound.”

“This mic has exceeded all of my expectations! I have to admit I was skeptical, but after being in the music business for over 30 years, this mic is the last one I ever need to own! This mic just sounds sweet! This is the best mic I have ever used under $10,000! This one cost under $1,000 and worth every penny! I have used, AKG414 vintage and new, U87, 251s, U47 & U67s vintage and new, and the new love of my life besides my gal is the Vanguard V13! This mic has a sound all it’s own and is so very, very special in it’s own right! Warm, pleasing and sweet! Thank you Vanguard Audio Labs, you guys are it for me!”

“I have a lot of expensive mics – and this hangs out among the best. Don’t let the price fool you. Pretend you paid $4000 – so you can psychologically be prepared for how great it is! I am so grateful that someone is willing to manufacture this and pass along the great pricing to the consumer.”

“Stoked to have this Vanguard V13 in the new studio digs! It’s replaced a mic that cost 4X as much and I feel STOKED with how it’s performing!!!…Built like a tank, sounds like a flower…A million thanks to Derek and the team for making such a great product!”

“I really can’t say enough about the V13. Just an elegant and super vibey mic. I literally can put it in front of anything and be confident it’s gonna sound incredible. So much more than the sum of its parts!”

“I use this beautiful microphone daily in my job as a voice actor for indie Games, Audio dramas etc. I absolutely love and adore the character and life that this microphone has. This microphone also solves an issue I have – even with my TLM 103 – of a robotic quality that appears in my recordings in certain frequency bands. (which matters a lot due to my character acting range needing to be very flexible!)

I just had to thank you guys for making such a great microphone that is a joy to use and that sounds so full of life. (and she’s also a pretty gorgeous mic to boot!) I have been positively overjoyed with the sound and use experience.”

“Testing day with Vanguard [V1S and V13] – such a deep and emotional experience to hear my Woolson Soundcraft [guitar] sounding as big and detailed and natural as it sounds in my head…It feels like now I can record things again, and that is inspiring.

“It has all the important qualities: open with amazing definition, but without being harsh. Warm and expensive sounding but with amazing clarity. There’s an intimacy that you normally only get from the very, very expensive German mics.  Feedback from our mix engineer was that he never used as little processing on a vocal recording. An all-around winner in any price category.”

“Quite honestly the best acoustic guitar mic I have ever used…”

“If you asked me to recommend one microphone that could tackle several tasks under $5000, I would definitely point to the V13 gen2 right out of the gate – even though it’s a fifth of the cost!”

“The V13 [gen2] is simply a fantastic mic with smart design, quality construction, nearly limitless versatility, and  balanced tone that seems to slightly flatter just about any source…it might soon be your favorite vocal mic, bar none…I can recommend the V13 [gen2] as your first ‘top-shelf mic’ for its price/performance ratio, or as an addition to ‘complete mic closets’. Vanguard has hit the bullseye on this one.”

“So my Vanguard V13 gen2 arrived earlier this week and holy wow DO I LOVE THIS MICROPHONE. From first opening the package to the first use of it on a whole bunch of instruments and voices it has been a quality experience. Very grateful for the people who thought it up and the people who made it – it’s a beautiful thing to behold. Physically beautiful to look at, and functionally a great pleasure to listen to…it’s proven one of my best purchases. On drum room duty it gets as big as I could ever want without any cymbal hash, on vocals it is present and meaty but never strident, and on acoustic guitar it makes the dang thing sound better than it actually does in the room. My only problem with it is that I only have one. Will be getting another as soon as finances allow. This is a really special microphone – thanks for making it!”

“As an engineer having the correct tools is vital. And having a V13 in your tool box is a beautiful thing. I have put the V13 up against mics that are $3,000+, and boy does it hold up. It gives the singing voice a presence that is natural in every way. One of my favorite things to experience is when artists first hear their voice through a V13, its always a wow factor in the studio.”

“[The V13] excels on so many different types of voices. The variable patterns change the tone in a great way. If you have $700-$800 to spend on a vocal mic, I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t buy this mic. It’s also killer on drum overheads and rooms!”

“I’ve never heard a mic in this league like the Vanguard Audio Labs V13, winning shootouts against boutique-prized gear in a snap….the price tag it’s an engineer’s wet dream.”

“This business is all about trusted relationships. We trust Vanguard Audio Labs with much of the music we produce. And at no time during the production process do we not consider the V13 tube mics for vocals and acoustic instrument mic’ing. Value, versatility, reliability and million-dollar sound.“

“The V13 sounds very round and warm in the lower middle, provides a strong bass foundation, is good-natured with transients, but still has a very clean midrange paired with silvery, soft highs. One normally would not risk a direct comparison to a classic, but if it does, it might work in the direction of an ELA M 251.

With its soft basic character, the V13 always looks very elegant and ‘beautiful’, even with problematic voices or instruments…A real hit for vintage fans who can not or will not spend a fortune on such a sound, if you ask me.”

“Testing initially with the spoken voice, and it’s the mid-range that grabs your attention first. There’s detail and clarity here, and the very slightest hint of “edge” to consonants that’s immediately quite appealing. Despite this, it never seems to tend towards harshness or hardness – in fact the top end sounds relatively restrained and open….

“With sung (female) vocals, again, there’s something immediately very arresting about the sound – it’s forward without sounding hyped in the highs, but never sounds closed-in as a result…

“…it isn’t aiming to be the cheapest tube microphone out there. Sonically, though, it sounds in completely different league to those cheaper designs, and it would give more established (and expensive) models a real run for their money.”

“Everything about the mic feels well-built, especially the shock mount…There is a definite impression, when opening the flight case for the first time, of getting a lot more than you paid for…

“We have to mention the V13’s self-noise – there wasn’t any. So little in fact, we re-checked the recording array to make sure it was all plugged in correctly.

” And, at [this price point]…we are extremely impressed.”

“The V13 isn’t just a great mic. Instead of aping vintage stalwarts, [Vanguard have] conceived and constructed a new style of LDC that has it’s own set of characteristics and rewards the user in an unapologetic, uncompromising fashion. Unsurprisingly these are the exact strengths that are desired by the majority of modern producers.

When you hear the sonorous, extended highs this mic so effortlessly produces – highs that are devoid of ugly resonances, when you feel the V13’s tight and well balanced, muscular low mids and hear how the rich mid range bolsters the overall smooth, low key hype of the V13’s beautifully balanced sonic spectrum you’ll be be shocked at how effortlessly a great, modern sounding vocal can be recorded. This mic is so good because it’s truly fresh and modern.”

“The Vanguard V13 sounds as good as it looks – and it looks stunning…A mic of this quality, that sounds this good usually comes with a hefty price tag, but the Vanguard V13 is much more reasonably priced than one might expect. We expect that a lot of project studio owners will be eyeing this up for their next mic purchase.”

“Vanguard pays attention to small details…The V13 provided a rich, full tone…the top end felt smooth and extended, but not artificially bright or hyped; the low mids felt smooth, but focused. The V13 [provides] both a sound and build quality that place the mic’s value well above it’s price.”

“We got to try [the V13] on Vocals and Acoustic Guitars and the results were mind-blowing. The sheen warmth and clarity that the V13 created was very pleasing sonically. Especially, on husky female vocals, the V13 brought out character that was spectacular. We were really astonished by what this microphone could do at this price point… the V13 stacks up really well against much more expensive mics and is worth every penny, and is now part of our boutique microphone locker.”

“Few mics I’ve used sound so pleasant, warm, full and bright without hype. And I’ve never encountered a microphone that’s so expensive-sounding at this price point.”

“[Vanguard] has taken some of the best aspects of [the best] microphones that money can buy and blended them into the V13….the smooth top end of the original Telefunken [251], the low end richness of the U47…they have done a really great job of getting the character of a lot of the great mics we would all like to have in our locker….a very, very versatile microphone.

“For a microphone of this quality, [the price] is staggering. Absolutely incredible price for a microphone that, quite frankly, could be THE microphone you need (or maybe a pair of them).”