Harvey, what do you make of this?

Henrik

Henrik

Member
www.lineaudio.se

Line Audio is a small company in Sweden that designs and manufactures mics and mic preamps. They have a series of mics (SM/ST/QM series) that seem to be designed in a pretty unusual manner (one of their mics has six membranes, another one has twelve!).

Harvey or anyone who knows something about mics - have you ever seen this type of design, and what is your immediate impression when reading about them?

About the prices - $1 is approximately 10 Swedish krona. So you simply skip a zero on the SEK amount, to get the USD amount.

Thanks
/Henrik
 
Very interesting concept. They're apparently using a lot of small electret capsules to form the different patterns and using multiple capsules to get greater output as well. The big problems will be the consistency from capsule to capsule, and the cancelations caused by multiple capsules when placed close together. Still, it's an interesting marketing approach.
 
Hmmm... I suppose I could ask them what capsules they use and how they deal with the possible cancellation problems you mention.

Thanks for taking a look at this, Harvey!

/Henrik
 
So I mailed the company, and I got a long reply from the guy that seems to be the mic designer himself (it actually seems to be a one man company). I'll see if I can sum it up (which involves some translation of technical terms, wish me luck):

About consistency from capsule to capsule, he claimed that each capsule is individually tested and placed into groups after output level. If they deviate more than +/-1 dB, they will be thrown away.

About the frequency cancellation he claimed that this is no problem since he's using small capsules (does that make sense?). The membrane trio acts pretty much like a large diaphragm.

He claims the mics are very consistent. Each mic is A/B tested to a reference mic (pink noise, test tone and music) - the accepted deviation in output level is +/- .75 dB. (But if I understand him correctly, he makes no specific claim about how close the frequency response curves are, other that he claims that no audible differences are accepted).

The mics are intended to sound as much as measurement mics as possible, that is neutral without any intended voicing (as opposed to mics like SP C1, ADK A51, and Marshall V67 that are all voiced after well known mic models).

The mics are hand assebled inhouse, in Sweden. The housing is from another Swedish company and the membranes are Japanese. (makes me wonder how he can keep these low prices).

I also asked him about his pres. He said they were intended to be as uncolored and noiseless as possible.

It sounds interesting, so maybe I should try these things out. If nothing else, I like the idea of having equipment that very few other people have!

Cheers
/Henrik
 
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