You Americans are lucky. I wish I could deal with Sweetwater but they think Hawaii is closer than Ontario and won't ship stuff up here. I'm lusting after a guitar that they have on sale for $299. In Canada it will cost me $800.
 
There's hardly any small music stores left because the 1 Canadian super chain has bought them or put them out of business. Unfortunately that 1 chain sucks big time. I traded in an amp once and found it on sale as new one month later. When I challenged them about it I was tossed from the store.
 
Don't complain America, you're rolling in tall clover.

Thanks Fireberd, I took your suggestion and called my guy at sweetwater. First I talked to his assistant, and he thought I had some settings wrong in my voice live. When Brian called me back, he said there was no warranty after 2 years. I understand this I make judgments on warranties almost every day. with my employer I can warranty things long after the warranty is expired, if I see something wasn't installed right. But I cant do that with factory warranties on parts. 
 
Brian did tell me he had lots of mics at home he doesn't need, and he is going to bring one in tomorrow for me to pick up and try.(You should know I knew Brian before he worked at Sweetwater) So this may solve my problem. At least I'll have something to use.
 
After all the suggestions I thought it would be a good idea to try the mic on different preamps. So using a different cable I tried it into my ZED14, and it was a little better but still popped. I tried both channels of my tube pre. It was worse than the the voice live on ch1 and about the same on ch2. The two channels have completely different circuits, but do use the same transformers. I hope I solve this because it's no fun this way, and I just don't use the voice live these days. 
 
I'm at the point in my life where I don't want to collect more gear. I have more mics than my daughter can use when I'm dead, and my oldest boy is more into photography than music now, so I din't think he'll want any mics. At least I can tell him where not to buy a Camera.

ampfixer
You Americans are lucky. I wish I could deal with Sweetwater but they think Hawaii is closer than Ontario and won't ship stuff up here. I'm lusting after a guitar that they have on sale for $299. In Canada it will cost me $800.
...
Don't complain America, you're rolling in tall clover.

Setting aside the fact that we're getting hammered by our falling dollar, I just for the first time ordered some things from B&H (because they had a tablet cover for my wife in a colour not available in Canada).  Free shipping over 99$ (Purolator) and they take care of customs/taxes for a very small surcharge (12$ total, cdn tax and duty, on a 100$ order).  They even sent my four items in two shipments.  The first took two days and the second three (NYC to Montreal).  Fastest and cheapest I've ever experienced, and I've bought a lot of stuff from the US.
 
I bought my Sennheiser HD280 headphones from Sweetwater a few years ago.
 

I quickly skimmed thru this thread... so if this has already been mentioned, I apologize.
 
First, there isn't a problem with purchasing discounted gear from GearFest.
I went last year... and got a fantastic deal on a PRS guitar.  It's flawless.
 
GearFest has turned into a HUGE event.
"Disneyland for musicians"  
Millions of dollars in gear is sold that weekend.
Manufacturers give Sweetwater great pricing... knowing they're going to make significant sales.
 
Regarding both the SM57 and SM58:
An SM57 has no built-in protection against "plosives".  
Any SM57 will "pop" if you sing directly into it.
An SM58 has a small bit of foam inside the grill.
That helps, but it likely won't be enough for strong "P", "B", or "T" plosives... where a lot of air is sent directly toward the capsule.

DrLumen
Since some of you are remarking about NYC camera shops, I was wondering about a widely known one (letterB&letterH). While I haven't had any issues with the little I have bought from them but is there anything I (we) should know?

I've purchased many items (cameras, musical equipment and TV's) from B&H and have nothing but excellent service, delivery, and pricing from them. I put them in the same league as Sweetwater that is my usual go to facitlity for music stuff. I just bought a Behringer X-Touch from B&H this week since Sweetwater was out with no new inventory in sight.
 
Walt 

Jim Roseberry
I quickly skimmed thru this thread... so if this has already been mentioned, I apologize.
 
First, there isn't a problem with purchasing discounted gear from GearFest.
I went last year... and got a fantastic deal on a PRS guitar.  It's flawless.
 
GearFest has turned into a HUGE event.
"Disneyland for musicians"  
Millions of dollars in gear is sold that weekend.
Manufacturers give Sweetwater great pricing... knowing they're going to make significant sales.
 
Regarding both the SM57 and SM58:
An SM57 has no built-in protection against "plosives".  
Any SM57 will "pop" if you sing directly into it.
An SM58 has a small bit of foam inside the grill.
That helps, but it likely won't be enough for strong "P", "B", or "T" plosives... where a lot of air is sent directly toward the capsule.

Thanks Jim I've been waiting to hear how the 57 should work with vocals. Like I said I bought the 57 for recording electric guitar, something I don't even play that much. The 58 was my concern since I had used one for 20 years without this problem. In fact now that I know more about the 57, I can say the 58 is the only thing from Sweetwater I've had trouble with.
 
BTW; I saw you there Saturday morning talking with Craig before his seminar. My day at Gearfest was cut short when my Wife called me and had broken her foot. But I did have time to get a new pickup, for My accustic guitar. And it is great. 
 
Friday I popped into Sweetwater and picked up a Blue enCORE 100. This is the one Brian brought in from home. I tried it out yesterday. It works great I get a little popping on some louder P's, but nothing on the B's that annoyed me with the 58. It is fun to use the voicelive again. It must be that Sweetwater difference we read about so much.