MicTested
sE V7 vs SM58: Better Sheet, Smaller Sample
MicTested
Four dollars separate the prices, and the sE V7 wins nearly every published row for the lower of them: 2.0 mV/Pa against 1.59, 40 Hz to 19 kHz against 50 to 15, 305 g against 327, and a supercardioid pattern against a cardioid one.
Two things run the other way, and both matter more than the rows. Three people have rated the V7 at this shop against 165 for the SM58, and the SM58 is the one whose sheet puts numbers on the sides and the rear. If the stage is loud and the singer stays on axis, take the sE. Take the Shure if the microphone gets handed around, or if the monitor position has to be planned on paper.
Side by side
| sE Electronics V7 | Shure SM58-LC | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $105.00 | $109.00 |
| Type | Dynamic, supercardioid, handheld, end address | Dynamic, cardioid, handheld, end address |
| Sensitivity | 2.0 mV/Pa (−54 dBV/Pa) | 1.59 mV/Pa (−56 dBV/Pa) |
| Frequency response | 40 Hz to 19 kHz, no tolerance stated | 50 Hz to 15 kHz, no tolerance stated |
| Off-axis rejection | not published | 2 dB at 60°, 10 dB at 120°, 20 dB at 180° |
| Output impedance | 300 Ω | 300 Ω actual |
| Magnet | Neodymium | not published |
| Voice coil | Aluminium | not published |
| Weight | 305 g | 327 g |
| Dimensions | 184 mm long, 54 mm across the grille | 162 mm long, 51 mm across the grille |
| Mount thread | 5/8"-27, 3/8"-16 adapter included | 5/8"-27, 3/8"-16 adapter included |
| Owner rating | 4.7 from 3 | 4.9 from 165 |
Acoustic rows come from the two manufacturers, prices and ratings from the shop listings.
2 dB, and where each lands in the row
sE prints 2.0 mV/Pa and −54 dB side by side, and the second number checks the first: 20·log10(0.002) is −54.0, so the reference is a volt per pascal even though the sheet never says so. Shure prints −56 dBV/Pa with 1.59 mV in brackets. The two are therefore the same measurement, though 2 decibels stand between them. Against the 17 dynamics here that state output in a convertible form, the median is 1.8. The sE sits above it and the Shure just below, which puts them in adjacent halves of the same row rather than in different leagues. Two decibels is audible as a gain-knob position and nothing more; on a loud stage it's one notch of headroom before the preamp starts contributing its own noise, and a $54 Shure handheld at 2.10 mV/Pa is hotter than either.
The pattern is the decision
Eight of the 28 dynamics collected here are supercardioid and the rest are cardioid, and the V7 is in the smaller group. A cardioid is deafest directly behind, whereas a supercardioid is deafest at roughly 125° to each side and hears a small lobe from straight back.
And that single fact rearranges a stage. A wedge monitor placed behind a singer sits in the cardioid's null and in the supercardioid's rear lobe, so the same monitor position that's safe with the Shure can start ringing with the sE. Move the wedges out to the sides and the arithmetic reverses, since the sE's nulls land where the sound is, and the tighter pattern keeps the gain knob turning further before anything rings.
But the narrower lobe costs something at the front as well. A singer who drifts off the axis loses more level on a supercardioid, and that's why the pattern suits a performer with a fixed stance and punishes one who works the crowd. Shure's own supercardioid answer is the Beta 58A, and it costs $179 rather than $105.
What the V7 does not publish
There aren't any off-axis attenuation figures on the sE sheet. sE states the pattern and prints a diagram; the numbers that would say how many decibels arrive at 60°, 120° and 180° aren't there. Shure states all three for the SM58: 2 dB, 10 dB and 20 dB. And that asymmetry is worth more than it looks on a stage with monitors. A pattern name describes a shape, whereas the three numbers describe what a wedge at a known angle actually costs. Without them the sE's rejection has to be found by setting the system up and turning the gain until something rings.
sE publishes two things Shure doesn't, and both are construction rather than behaviour: a neodymium magnet and an aluminium voice coil. Neither can be compared with anything on the Shure sheet, because Shure doesn't name a magnet material at all.
Three ratings against 165
The V7 carries 4.7 from three owners at this shop and the SM58 carries 4.9 from 165. Three isn't a sample, and the average computed from it shouldn't be read as a verdict on anything.
But what the gap does describe is exposure. A rating count answers how many people bought a thing, not how well it works, but the two questions are answered by different evidence. The SM58's 165 ratings put one review at two stars and one at three, which is the shape a very large sample takes. One of the three says what an average can't: "Mic is great but the no on and off switch makes it difficult for me," wrote a four-star buyer on 1 March 2026. Three ratings can't take a shape at all.
And spares follow the same line. Shure's guide names the SM58's cartridge by part number, R59, so a dead capsule is an order rather than a replacement microphone. The sE sheet names no serviceable part, and the box contents stop at a clip, a thread adapter and an internal windscreen.
Which one to buy
What separates them isn't quality but the width of the job each was designed for. The V7 for a loud stage with side-fill monitors, a singer who stays in front of the microphone, and a preamp that could use the extra 2 dB. It also reaches 4 kHz higher and 10 Hz lower on paper, weighs 22 g less, and costs $4 less than the microphone it's aimed at.
So the comparison is between a microphone aimed at one singer and a microphone aimed at a venue. The SM58 for everything that gets shared. Handed between vocalists, dropped, loaned to a support act, aimed at a wedge that nobody measured — the cardioid pattern and the published rejection table make its behaviour predictable in exactly the situations where nobody has time to test.
Neither choice is wrong on the specification. The sE is the better sheet at the lower price, while the Shure is the better known quantity, and on a stage the known quantity is often what's being bought.
Sources
- sE Electronics V7 specifications: capsule type, polar pattern, frequency range, sensitivity, impedance, magnet and voice-coil materials, dimensions, weight and box contents.
- Shure's SM58 user guide: output impedance, cartridge part number and the off-axis attenuation figures.
- B&H Photo Video listing for the sE V7: price, rating count and the thread adapter.
- B&H Photo Video listing for the Shure SM58-LC: price, rating count and the star distribution.
- Medians, row sizes and the count of supercardioid models come from listings of 200 audio products collected the same way. How those are converted and compared.
Listings were open on 20 August 2026; what they showed that day is what the numbers report.
What we did not doNeither microphone has been in our hands. Every figure above is what the two makers and the shop publish, and where a sheet is silent the table says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate.
