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I just received my CAD Equitek E100S microphone from this Massdrop drop yesterday (March 14, 2016). It is identical in Quality and Finish to the 3 other CAD E100S mics that I own that I had purchased from B&H Photo-Video for $299 shipped, which is to say the quality is excellent overall in my opinion. It does include an extra set of replacement "rubber bands" for the shock mount! (Earlier I stated that the Massdrop mic did not have these extra shock mount bands, but I found them between the paperwork inside the plastic sleeve).
Also as a side note, I wish Massdrop was a bit better about their packaging/cushioning/protection for their shipments! My CAD E100S was just placed in the cardboard shipping box with No Protection or Cushioning, with about 3" of extra room on the lengthwise end of the shipping box so that the E100S box easily shifted/slid around loosely. :( Both ends of the shipping box were crushed in an accordion shape. This resulted in one corner of the mic's nice cherry-stained wood box being dinged fairly bad. :( Really Massdrop?!?! Thanks for that! :RollEyes: Luckily the mic is protected fairly well inside the wood box with plenty of foam padding.
These are excellent microphones, especially at this price, but I'd say even compared to some up to $1500 mics, depending on your intended use. I've used it on Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar Cab, Male & Female Vocal, Saxophones, Upright & Baby Grand Piano, Drum Overheads, Snare, Toms/Floor Toms, Shakers, Tambourine, Chimes/Triangle, Cowbell...all with excellent results.
I most often use these with an Audient ASP880 8-Channel mic preamp with 3-position input Impedance or a Millenia HV-3D-8 mic pre's when available. Very nice, very low noise-floor mic, which I really appreciate when trying to capture realistic, true-to-life, detailed recordings. Note that you will generally need a quiet or well-treated room as these mics will pick up every little detail. Stick with the Shure SM7B if you have a lot of background noise.
Use the E100S's low-frequency roll-off to minimize rumble and to suppress unwanted exterior/ambient noise. Use Placement to control your room-to-source pickup ratio, and use its Proximity Effect in combination with the HPF/Rolloff to control the Bass-to-Mid/Treble balance on Male & Female vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Tom Drums, Piano, etc.
For V-O and vocals use a metal mesh pop filter/windscreen about 4-6 inches from the mic's mesh grill and keep the tip of your nose lightly against the pop filter mesh (I use red fingernail polish to put a red dot near the top-center of the pop filter for nose placement, LOL). To control heavy Plosives and S'es, angle the Pop Filter to the side at about 20-30 degrees off-axis from the mic so when your singer or V-O artist sings or speaks straight into the pop filter, they are actually 20-30 degrees off-axis to the mic capsule (so the singer is singing just a bit off to one side of the mic) . If you can't get amazing results with this mic on almost any voice or instrument, you are doing something wrong/using the wrong technique/placement or have a horrible mic preamp. I only wish that this was a Multi-Pattern mic! It would be even more amazing and versatile if it had Omni, Cardioid, Super-Cardioid, and Figure 8 pickup patterns.
Other very highly-recommended and similar LDC mics that are absolutely fantastic and $250-$400 are the newer Aston Microphones SPIRIT and ORIGIN. You owe it to yourself to check these out, especially if you are a V-O artist, Singer-Songwriter, Acoustic Guitarist! Most specialty retailers will give you at least a 5% discount, and even up to 20% if you just ask. I would really like to see these mics on Massdrop! HINT!
And I can also highly-recommended the Lewitt LCT-550/LCT-640 FET mics for instruments and voice, and LCT-840/940 Tube mics for vocals (and basically ANY Lewitt mic), though these LDC's are at least double the cost of the E100S (but also worth it)! I also use the Lewitt LCT-340 SDC's as Drum Overheads and on snare bottom, and the MTP-440 Dynamic on snare top...with outstanding results. The DTP-640 REX mic is killer for bass drum and electric guitar/bass cabs. It would be great to see these Lewitt mics on Massdrop as well, though they are easily available from most retail suppliers for 20% off MSRP. HTH!