**Yes, I know the Shure was backwards, and was in Omni mode. I didn't check the switches before I plugged it in, and previous owner had left it in omni. Also, on the Shure the high pass and pad switches are on the back, whereas on most of my other mics these switches are on the front, hence the confusion. Also, the mic must have been worked on at some point, because in cardioid mode the back diaphragm is active and the front is off, so a wire's obviously been swapped inside that's caused this to happen**

Here's a mic comparison with 3 very different levels of microphone - one basic, one middle-of-the-road and one "high end".
(My apologies for the pops in the audio, I normally use a pop shield so tend to let the occasional plosive through when not using one!)
Audio was level matched and slightly compressed, and a bass roll off at 80hz was applied.