Not long ago I considered getting the same one, but had Big Jim talk me out of it. I researched the mic more in depth, and found out that those MXL's have a bad rep for exactly that.. sounding noisy.

So, I don't think all tube mic's are like that at all, but many MXL's may be. Seems, the decent tube mic's you can get, would be from a Rode K2 and up..

I have heard soundclips from some T-Bone's (cheap German brand) in the low price range, I thought were decent, but haven't tried them yet.

Soundwise, I think you get a similar effect from an exciter and from just putting Autotune on (without actually editing). Much of the current pop/Nashville vocal sound comes from Autotune.