I recently became curious about the Heil PR40, having read a number of good reviews on the web. It is a dynamic end address mic with a very wide flat frequency response from 28Hz to 18kHz. It is capable of handling very high SPL’s, which makes it a very versatile mic. At around $300 US, it was cheap enough to take a punt on! I first tried it on vocals, and being primarily designed as a broadcast mic, it was very smooth and detailed through the midrange, with a nice amount of “air”. Low frequencies were well rounded and and controlled. Off axis performance was also very good. For my voice, I would probably prefer a large diaphragm condenser mic like the Rode NT2-A, but still a very handy vocal mic.
What I really liked the Heil PR40 on was guitar cabinets. I think it will become my mic of choice for this purpose due to the mid range detail and lack of high frequency harshness. A bit like a ribbon mic. The pR40 is also very nice on kick drums, particularly if you are after a natural “shell” sound to complement the thump. The thing I like about the PR40 is that it provides a nice contrast to the typically bright lower cost Chinese LDC mics.
I bought mine from Jim Shryne at http://www.dxstore.com/ , not being readily available in Australia (to my knowledge).