long time lurker here... but in this case I feel like sharing my impressions of the SE8 omnis. I think they really deserve it.
I've had the pleasure to work with them for a number of times. Just to put it into perspective; I'm usually not very impressed with anything other than the usual ("expensive") suspects (Neumann et al.).
In this case the SE8 omnis really really suprised me. The first time ever that I heard them was in the studio through the monitoring headphones (foldback - DT770) after I had put up the mics for a guitar tracking session. I was strumming a bit (simulating what the artist would play) and basically checking that the mics were up and running. I heard the guitar through the headphones and it sounded so incredibly NICE that I froze and immediately asked the assistant in the control room to tell me which mic I was hearing (I had set up multiple microphones).
He said "that's the SE8 omni" (mono), so I made him check the patchbay and the mic pre inputs because I couldn't believe what I was hearing was the SE8 omni. It was smooth, comfortably airy, with a very nice mid range resolution and an unfamiliarly incredible 3D depth (again - mono).
Subsequent blind tests confirmed my findings: I really like the sE8 omnis, a lot - to my ears they sound very expensive. Not something I can say about a lot of sub $500 mics, not to mention SDC omnis...
Again, these are my five cents, and I know I (unfortunately) have very high standards when it comes to microphones. I could list a number of well respected mics that just "didn't cut it" for me because in the end they were lacking either character or resolution, depth etc...
Hope this helps! (Oh and the pre was a DAV BG8)
Back to lurker land...