Cheap Oktava's - trustable?

[rob_m69]

Hey everyone,

My first post here! Great forum, found alot of useful stuff.

Anyways, I found a pair of Oktava MK-012's on the Thomann website for only £250, about £40 cheaper than they are on the official site.

Only thing is, they're listed as MK-012 MSO2, and looking at the picture the writing goes down the side of the mic rather than across it, which I've never seen before.

Other than that the holders look genuine and silver screws are used unlike the chinese copies which use black, so I'm pretty sure they'll be Russian, it's just the writing that threw me off.

There's a serial number as well, so I'm sure there genuine, I just wanted to check if anyone had come across the different writing before.

Cheers,
Rob.

 

[jimmy77611]

Hey everyone,

My first post here! Great forum, found alot of useful stuff.

Anyways, I found a pair of Oktava MK-012's on the Thomann website for only £250, about £40 cheaper than they are on the official site.

Only thing is, they're listed as MK-012 MSO2, and looking at the picture the writing goes down the side of the mic rather than across it, which I've never seen before.

Other than that the holders look genuine and silver screws are used unlike the chinese copies which use black, so I'm pretty sure they'll be Russian, it's just the writing that threw me off.

There's a serial number as well, so I'm sure there genuine, I just wanted to check if anyone had come across the different writing before.

Cheers,
Rob.

I bought a pair recently from frontendaudio.com , and they have black screws on the holders (they are the black painted version, so that's why i assume they're black), and the writing goes down the side of the mic. These are genuine, and came with the Russian paperwork and test results.

 

[rob_m69]

Okay cool, just needed some verification, thanks for your help mate!

Rob

 

[Shadow_7]

In theory the MC-012 is the Chinese version. The MK-012 is the Russian version. Not that I'd expect strict adherence to those naming conventions. But it might hint one way or the other.

 

[darrin_h2000]

Ive heard rumors about some of them being chinese.

You can try some of the audio technica SDCs arround that price point...at least you wont have to worry about them being counterfiet chinese mics.

 

[zebra]

thoman sells the russion version, i bought them there and they are great.

oktava overall are very good stuff, i also bought the MK105 x 2 and 1st i wasnt impressed. but now i def keep em. sax, drums, percussion. a very nice low clean sound. and the highs are nice too
only for male vocals im not impressed.


greetz

 

[dgatwood]

In theory the MC-012 is the Chinese version. The MK-012 is the Russian version. Not that I'd expect strict adherence to those naming conventions. But it might hint one way or the other.

No, it's a different translation of the Russian characters. It is merely an indication of where the microphone was originally sold. IIRC, the MC-012 label was exclusively used in the U.S., while the MK-012 label was used for mics sold mostly in Russia and Europe, but I might have those backwards. That said, I think the Chinese ones were probably all labeled MC because AFAIK, they were only sold in the U.S. In fact, the one I saw in a photograph was labeled "MC 012" (with a space).

Either way, the Chinese copies are incredibly obvious once you see them. For one thing, they don't have a real seam around the mic near the bottom. On the Chinese version, it's one solid piece of metal on the outside, though it has a fake seam (more like a crease). With the Russian version, the bottom inch or so is a completely separate piece of metal with a different finish.

The Chinese version also has cheap plastic clips instead of the metal ones, no 10 dB pad, and different screws (though as you have noticed, so do the new Russian ones, so that last indicator isn't very useful anymore). That said, it's the one-piece MXL-603-like case that's a dead giveaway.

 

[alphasports]

In theory the MC-012 is the Chinese version. The MK-012 is the Russian version. Not that I'd expect strict adherence to those naming conventions. But it might hint one way or the other.

Actually the "C" or "K" models are both Russky; the factory changed the naming convention based on Condensor in english and Kondensor in Russian. Google "fake oktava mics" for the real way to tell the Chinee versions

 

[MichaelJoly]

In theory the MC-012 is the Chinese version. The MK-012 is the Russian version.

This is not correct. Mics labeled MC-012 and MK-012 were produced in the Oktava factory in Tula, Russia. Forget all about presence or absence of serial numbers, A.S.M., or MC / MK. It '012 has a small, silver, slotted screws at the XLR end of the body (not black Philips screws) it was made in the Oktava factory in Tula. End of story.