Tube Condenser Mic

Tube microphones have long been the stuff of legends.   Actively employed in studios for a long time and durable enough to travel with you this is for many the ultimately sought after tube mic.  Unfortunately all this glamour comes with a price tag too.  A good tube mic is difficult if not impossible to find at a price under $1,000.

Interestingly though, with the expiration of a number of patents several well known manufacturers have been able to employ condenser designs from the top tube mic leaders.  Often these FET microphones are packed full of cheap electronics that don't do the capsule design the justice it deserves.  By ripping out the old electronics and building a power supply one can build a high quality tube microphone and leverage the capsule design without having to have a huge manufacturing facility capable of creating the wafer thin gold sputtered diaphragms.

Since the circuitry is tube based, one usually does not pair up these microphones with a tube preamp.  The microphone employs a military grade 5840 tube paired with a Jensen audio transformer and is powered by a 105V DC power supply (internals pictured below).

Well rounded, this microphone is well suited for a variety of recording applications, but be prepared to EQ it a little.  The frequency response is very flat and so you'll want to tailor it to your application.