MichaelJoly
Banned
The rumor about Chinese manufactured MK-319 mics has bugged me for a while. While it has been well documented that copies of the MC-012s have been manufactured in China, there have only been rumors that the '319 was also illegally outsourced there by the MacKay bros (original Western distributors, now reported to be in liquidation) in an attempt to get lowest possible prices for their main customer, Guitar Center. Recently I had a large number of Oktava MK-319 mics in-house for modification at the same so it was easy to compare them all electrically and sonically. I now have proof of Chinese parts used in the Oktava MK-319.
A group of four mics sent to me from client was missing that “special something” I’m used to hearing after my mods are complete. I'm used to hearing a big, bold and commanding mid-range authority with a precise and well-balanced top end. Sure enough, I went back to my bench to look more closely at the capacitors I had pulled out to upgrade. What I saw was the brand name "Chang". Now unless that's a Russian name I haven't heard of before, I’m 99 and 44/100 percent sure these are Chinese copy MK-319s.
So what did I hear, or rather didn't hear?
The four mics in this group are all very consistent. Yet they are missing a certain amount of that explosive midrange presence the Oktava large diaphragm capsule can deliver when the mic is modified. The proximity effect was also less well defined, broader, and not as sharply tuned.
My suspicion is I'm hearing a capsule tuning issue. Large diaphragm capsules are miniature drums after all. Even though the Chinese manufacturer copied the look, feel and even most of the materials really accurately, what is missing is that indescribable something that comes from an artist tuning a drum - a large diaphragm capsule - just right.
Another issue may be the output transformer. It looks exactly like the original Russian transformer but I haven’t done bench tests yet to see how it compares to my 11 year old MK-219 transformer. I do know that the transformers in the first wave of inexpensive Chinese mics were junk - that's why manufacturers changed to the now standard transistorized output stage (which Scott Dorsey popularized in his “Shanghai Mike” article). So the transformer might be contributing to some of the softness I hear.
You just can’t tell from the outside if an MK-319 is Russian or Chinese. Earlier MK-319s had a serial number beginning with the letter “N” in a Cyrillic typeface. When I first saw the newer models, the serial number sequence had been extended and the Cyrillic “N” dropped. I thought this might indicate Chinese origin. But I’ve subsequently seen 319s with genuine Russian capacitors inside no-“N” serial number mics. The Chinese copy mics have this same no-“N” serial number designation. So serial number alone is not proof of Russian authenticity of an MK-319. The only positive proof I’ve got so far is the existence of either Russian designated or “Chang” brand capacitors on the circuit boards.
And the fact that my ears tell me the special Oktava sound is not quite there in some newer Oktava MK-319s I've seen
oh, by the way. Thanks to web designer Yvan Huneault of Montreal I've got a new look at my www.Oktavamod.com site. Enjoy!
A group of four mics sent to me from client was missing that “special something” I’m used to hearing after my mods are complete. I'm used to hearing a big, bold and commanding mid-range authority with a precise and well-balanced top end. Sure enough, I went back to my bench to look more closely at the capacitors I had pulled out to upgrade. What I saw was the brand name "Chang". Now unless that's a Russian name I haven't heard of before, I’m 99 and 44/100 percent sure these are Chinese copy MK-319s.
So what did I hear, or rather didn't hear?
The four mics in this group are all very consistent. Yet they are missing a certain amount of that explosive midrange presence the Oktava large diaphragm capsule can deliver when the mic is modified. The proximity effect was also less well defined, broader, and not as sharply tuned.
My suspicion is I'm hearing a capsule tuning issue. Large diaphragm capsules are miniature drums after all. Even though the Chinese manufacturer copied the look, feel and even most of the materials really accurately, what is missing is that indescribable something that comes from an artist tuning a drum - a large diaphragm capsule - just right.
Another issue may be the output transformer. It looks exactly like the original Russian transformer but I haven’t done bench tests yet to see how it compares to my 11 year old MK-219 transformer. I do know that the transformers in the first wave of inexpensive Chinese mics were junk - that's why manufacturers changed to the now standard transistorized output stage (which Scott Dorsey popularized in his “Shanghai Mike” article). So the transformer might be contributing to some of the softness I hear.
You just can’t tell from the outside if an MK-319 is Russian or Chinese. Earlier MK-319s had a serial number beginning with the letter “N” in a Cyrillic typeface. When I first saw the newer models, the serial number sequence had been extended and the Cyrillic “N” dropped. I thought this might indicate Chinese origin. But I’ve subsequently seen 319s with genuine Russian capacitors inside no-“N” serial number mics. The Chinese copy mics have this same no-“N” serial number designation. So serial number alone is not proof of Russian authenticity of an MK-319. The only positive proof I’ve got so far is the existence of either Russian designated or “Chang” brand capacitors on the circuit boards.
And the fact that my ears tell me the special Oktava sound is not quite there in some newer Oktava MK-319s I've seen
oh, by the way. Thanks to web designer Yvan Huneault of Montreal I've got a new look at my www.Oktavamod.com site. Enjoy!
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