AKG C414 XLS

I am confining this review to intended, rather than, actual use as the unmatched pair I have was planned for a recording session of a small group of young children for which the session was cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Given that I had used the sister microphone that is the XLii as a mike for soloists I am sure that it will be perfect for the future task.
I would comment that the manual is particularly helpful in assisting the inexperienced user to know which application needs a C414 XLS or C414XLii. The intended purpose ( e.g. organ violin, backing vocal or speech etc. of the twenty-one listed) .) using either of them comes as “recommended” or “highly recommended” so the end choice is still a happy one. One can hardly complain when the choice is between the two good alternatives.

I bought my C414 XLS about a year ago, I love everything about it!

The pros:
Marvelous build quality;
Pristine sound;
The ability to choose a middle term between polar patterns;
The included hard case is very sturdy.

The cons:
I can think of one con and it comes from a pro. As the C414 has a very detailed sound and is very sensible, if you have any noise getting in the room, or if the room doesn't sound good you can very clearly hear it on your recordings.
The elastic mount that comes with the XLS isn't all that great either. Wouldn't trust it too much.

Conclusion:
This microphone is a great tool to have, you can throw anything at it whether it's an instrument, vocals, folley and so on, and it'll get the job done just right.

This is a very good mic. However I was planning on using it for vocals and I didn't like the way it sounded on mine. (I did end up finding another mic in the $500 range that represented my voice well) The XLii is supposed to be more of a vocal mic, but I didn't try that one out since I already have a c214 which is supposed to be the cardioid-only pattern version of the XLii. The c214 doesn't represent my voice well either, but that's just a personal thing, everyone needs to find a mic that fits their voice. Back to the XLS, I do love the many choices for polar patterns, which makes this thing a workhorse for instruments. I've used it on acoustic and electric cab and the results are very nice. When switching betwen some polar patterns there can be little pops which are annoying, but I don't think they are loud enough to affect anything adversely.