oh I was just rambling, but yeah I sold one and bought one at that price and bought it again (because I just had to have the box case that I never used)
what got me to post that was seeing the new price today!! $649.99 new!
SOS has them reviewed at 2008.
as I recall the ISA One was the most common suggestion for a preamp for the SM7b, now it seems to be the CL. imo.

I guess over 5 to 10yrs going up $200-$400 is normal, add in Used and New and inflation of gear and Covid spending.

regards,
Rip Van Winkle

So you are comparing a very good used price from almost a decade ago to a current price for brand new??? Unless I'm reading you wrong that makes no sense.

I did some searching and the ISA One came out in 2001

Tape Op did a review of it in 2008 listing the new price then at $999.99 MSRP or $800 street so the new price is actually cheaper now not more expensive.

As to the used price the cheapest one currently on Reverb is $449 but most are in the mid to high five hundreds.

I looked a bit deeper and realized that this preamp has a optional digital I/O card which obviously changes the new and used prices by a bunch. This is a major reason why the pricing varies a bunch on them and is maybe part of the confusion.

yeah youre right. The SOS had it around 499euro?$600 US retail? 2008, so maybe the retail isnt too bad after all. I dont recall online stores selling them new at $650 or more, though, maybe with the digital card.

Maybe someone who runs a store could answer the Trivia history on the ISA One. 2001 is earlier, so still a great unit, well built...plenty of gain for a SM7b.

The special release with the case and autographed Phil Dudderidge paper! I had to have it! and got one...lol

Bought the ISAOne the used prices were $275-$325 all day long when I became aware of them.

Im happy with the SM7b into a Cloudlifter these days. Paid $150 for the CL I think last year or 2019. Excellent gain booster and cheap. I did get the CL new.

I likes my SM7B through my Apogee Duet, but I like it a bit better through a NEVE desk and with a LA-2A inserted. I’m trying to say that it’s a great mic with anything that can gain it without excessive noise.

I think that anything from a Scarlett and up will power the SM7B just fine.

Btw, here is a song (in Norwegian) that I used an Apogee Duet and a SM7B on. All other processing was done afterwards. https://open.spotify.com/track/1aJI4...Q4C-uQ7yIeYzcQ

Daking Mic Pre One. Very affordable 2nd hand and my SM7B sounds amazing

Nearly any preamp/interface made in the last 5 years will power the SM7B just fine. I've tried a bunch over the years with SM7b, including Focusrite Scarlett and Mackie Blackjack. You have to crank it, but no noise issues.

I found out a long time ago all it needed was the standard 1:5 mic transformer that its in dynamic mics. I soldered mine inside and took the filter out because I use it for my saxophone and acoustic guitar. The presence boost is a gimmick because its a cut of everything else when I examined the circuit.

Besides that, I never had a reason to use the roll off on that mic even with vocals and I would use one on the channel strip first since passive dynamic mic filters have a lot of loss.

I use mine on a lot of live systems and different recording systems and I have no problems. Maybe Shure one day might come out with an SM7 with a dynamic mic transformer in it, and call it something like a "Beta SM7" or SM7R for a recording version.

The problem can then be with the tone of that preamp at that level.

The first time I heard an SM7 through a V76 and a Neve 1073 I was pretty shocked.

Good news is that now we have cheap clones that do a good job