octava MK012

nddhc

New member
I hear of everyone getting great deals on these MK012 mikes a year or two ago @ G.C. but most guitar centers dont even stock them, and those that do charge $150-$200 per mic. Ive heard of people getting them as low as $50?!

do these deals still exist?
 
I can probably buy them for $50-60 apiece right now, but they will be Chinese.
GC is getting into MXL more and more. The infighting between the 2 versions of Oktava have made service issues even more complicated than they were.-Richie
 
I see JRRShop.com selling the chinese ones for $99,

did G.C. ever sell the russian ones for lower than the $150-$200 retail? or are all the deals im hearing about from the chinese ones?
 
Heres an A/B comparison I found between the two

http://www.sound-patterns.com/mk012/

I prefer the sound of the original Russian ones myself (on the vocals at least, I dont notice much difference with the other recordings), but I have an extremely small budget and am willing to compromise with the chinese ones.
 
I bought the Russian mics for $50 apiece routinely, including for a couple members of this board. The Chinese mics don't come with the 10db pad, which is sold separately. The case is also different. Are they "fake"? That's debateable. There's a nice legal fight over who owns the name and marketing rights. I'm sure there are 2 sides to the story. There are also those that prefer the Chinese version. I wouldn't know. All of mine are Russian.-Richie
 
nddhc said:
did G.C. ever sell the russian ones for lower than the $150-$200 retail?

A few years back I picked 2 of the russians MC-012's at GC. I think I got then for $70.00 each.

This is what the russians ones look like and the came in a black case.
product_image.php
 
I know I'm going to open a can of worms here, but the way I see it, it doesn't matter which mic is better, or where they are made; Oktava is a russian company that makes russian mics. Anyone making mics and putting the Oktava logo on them is clearly in the wrong.

I don't mind a company reverse-engineering something, making a few changes and re-releasing it as a new product- hell, that's why home reccers can afford gear that's only a few (technological/sonic) years behind the top-level studios.

How would you feel if someone was using your brand name on their product?
This whole scandal has tarnished the name Oktava, and even now, a few years down the track, there's still doubt in the Oktava brand. They're not the best mics in the world, but they do the job. However, when you say "Oktava", people don't think "Studio Microphone", they think "Fake mics".
 
cpl_crud said:
http://oktava.tula.net/fake/

I'd advise buying new-model MK-012s from russia- they have better components and are comprable to old MK-012s that have undergone the Dorsey mod...

I got a matched pair and they're quite useful

This is quite interesting. My MK012s appear to be Russian according to most every picture from the link you posted. However, there are a couple of things that seem more Chinese:

1.) Mine say A.S.M. at the bottom as do the Chinese mics on the right
2.) Mine say Oktava like the Chinese mics, rather than the cryllic v which looks like a B. (However mine have MK-012-01 (no A after the 012) like the Russian mics in the photos.)
3.) I bought mine back in 2003, but they do not have serial numbers. I suppose they could have been manufactured before 2002 and therefore don't have serial numbers, but I bought 'em late in 2003. Actually, it could've even been early 2004.
4.) No documentation, (manual or response curve with hand written info)

Everything else is very Russian. White screws, silver sputtered contact pins, bonding areas have dimples for effective contact, metal mic clips, -10dB pads, and a case like the one shown on the Russian side. All the photos of the various mic parts on the Russian model definitely match mine too.

I can't remember how much I paid for mine...not too much though. Probably about $70 each.
 
MOTU said:
This is quite interesting. My MK012s appear to be Russian according to most every picture from the link you posted. However, there are a couple of things that seem more Chinese:

1.) Mine say A.S.M. at the bottom as do the Chinese mics on the right
2.) Mine say Oktava like the Chinese mics, rather than the cryllic v which looks like a B. (However mine have MK-012-01 (no A after the 012) like the Russian mics in the photos.)
3.) I bought mine back in 2003, but they do not have serial numbers. I suppose they could have been manufactured before 2002 and therefore don't have serial numbers, but I bought 'em late in 2003. Actually, it could've even been early 2004.
4.) No documentation, (manual or response curve with hand written info)

Everything else is very Russian. White screws, silver sputtered contact pins, bonding areas have dimples for effective contact, metal mic clips, -10dB pads, and a case like the one shown on the Russian side. All the photos of the various mic parts on the Russian model definitely match mine too.

I can't remember how much I paid for mine...not too much though. Probably about $70 each.

my guess is that you have Russian mics...
 
If you're concerned to get the real thing and are willing to pay for the peace of mind, Sound Room is widely regarded as the best source for authentic Oktavas. They maintain a relationship with the factory and independently test every mike. If you buy a matched pair, they do the testing and provide the plots to show you the freq response of each mike. When I bought mine I paid $174 each with no uplift for the matching of the pair. You can find them on the web.

I read too many scary stories about the mikes that were being sold through GC (problems like electrical shorts and terribly uneven quality) and felt that since I was in any case paying a pretty low price for the audio value -- compared to the mikes the Oktavas seek to emulate -- it was worth it to pay a little more for the Sound Room package.

I know it's possible to be savvy and/or lucky and get the genuine article cheaper, but that's what this particular scaredy-cat wound up doing. There are so many horror stories about the clones and fakes and shoddily made also-rans.
 
At my GC in Indianapolis, the price for the Octava MC012 used to be like $100 or maybe more each. But they would run a special 1-2 times per year where they would sell 2 for $100.

This was 2-3 years ago when I bought mine (and I think that I have the Russian ones, but I'm not sure).

Based on past comments on this board, other GC's seem to "deal" more than my GC. Or they just don't take me seriously!

I've lost track of what they are doing these days with Chinese models...
 
Yep, I got a Russian pair for $100 at GC. This goes back a couple of years when they were blowing them out. Later you could pick one up for $50 then they stopped carrying them for a long time. Next came the Chinese onslaught.
 
Yeah, I got mine too at GC, two of them for a note in the key of C and loved them. Then I did the Scott Dorsey mod and now they are priceless
 
Last night I checked out the Sound Patterns site < http://www.sound-patterns.com/mk012/ > and listened to all of the cardioid recordings of mics "A" & "B". Without disclosing which mic is which version, in case you'd like to check it out yourselves, I have to say that I liked the Russian made Oktava's sound better than the Chinese made fakes in the "blind taste-test" .

I was a bit surprised when I read the author's conclusion that he thought the Chinese fakes sounded better. I disagreed with him down the line, except for the fact that the variations were rather slight. I guess it just goes to prove that it's mostly about personal preference. To each his own. I'm personally glad I've got the real-deal...even if they didn't sound as good, (which isn't true!).
 
Just checked my records, I paid $163 for 2...or $81.50 each. Still not sure exactly when I bought 'em.
 
i want a pair of these.......been meaning to get a pair for a long time. i really don't care if they're russian or chinese but i can't see spending $200 per mic. someone mentioned that the chinese ones don't have the -10 db pads. i would like to have the pads. any sugguestions? i'm not currently close to a guitar centar. does guitar center ship?
 
Back
Top