Electro-Voice PL80A
A workhorse dynamic that Electro-Voice built to survive bar gigs and stadium tours, and priced so working players could afford one.
Overview
The PL80A is a supercardioid dynamic vocal microphone. It is the latest revision of Electro-Voice's long-running PL80, which the company positioned as its standard "workhorse" handheld, pitched to stocking dealers as a microphone designed to sound right in a real room rather than a sterile test environment (Sound-Arts, August 1980, p.43). The PL80 name was already circulating in dealer channels before this version arrived. Electro-Voice's trade advertising from 1980 pitched the original PL80 to stocking dealers the same way, and warned that a customer asking for a mic would think "PL80" first - lose the sale if you don't have one on the shelf.
The PL80A was designed specifically for vocal applications and built to handle everything from rough bar gigs to the largest touring stages. The build is plain: a textured black steel body with a gray grille formed from Electro-Voice's trademarked Memraflex steel mesh. No chrome, no styling exercises. It is a housing meant to take knocks.
The capsule is shock-mounted, and that is not marketing filler. In a solo set in a reverberant room with wood floors, the singer stomped his boots through the performance. The vocal stayed clean because the suspended capsule kept the footfalls out of the signal, while a comparison dynamic without shock mounting picked up the noise on guitar.
Tonally, the PL80A is not a flat, neutral instrument mic, and Electro-Voice never pretended otherwise. Its frequency response runs 80 Hz to 16 kHz with a broad presence ridge, up to roughly 5 dB of boost between 2 and 12 kHz. It also has a pronounced proximity effect of about +10 dB from 100 to 250 Hz. The low-end lift and upper-mid ridge color most vocal types flatteringly, and the same traits make the mic useful on drums and loud, close-miked guitar cabinets. A singer working a crowded, reverberant room gets detail and intimacy pushed forward without the mic turning brittle.
The tight supercardioid pattern does the other half of the job. Placement gets quicker and easier on stage or in the studio, and off-axis bleed stays manageable. That is why it stands out as a favorite affordable handheld dynamic, with notable feedback resistance in a live PA context. In the 2010 review's test room, the engineer had to carve mids with graphic EQ to keep stage levels under control. The PL80A still returned detail and a polite edge to the vocal compared with other industry-standard dynamics on hand.
Pricing kept it in working-musician territory. The PL80A carried a $165 list price, and it was judged a bargain at $99 street, a verdict delivered after live use, not a spec-sheet read. The mic ships with a flexible clip and a zippered, padded vinyl pouch. Within the broader PL Series, Electro-Voice grouped it among the dynamic supercardioid vocal models (alongside the PL24, PL24S, PL44, PL80C, PL33 and PL35) and marketed the whole family on durability, sonic performance and contemporary styling, with a non-reflective textured satin finish and fine-mesh Memraflex grilles across the line.
Collectors and working players should note that the PL80A is a tool, not a trophy — it was sold to be used hard, and survivors usually show it. The upside is that used examples remain an inexpensive way into a genuinely road-tested supercardioid with real shock mounting and a voicing that flatters voices. For a vocalist who wants one mic that behaves in a dive bar and a festival stage alike, the PL80A is about as honest as dynamic mics get.
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