HogansHiro
Now with 25% more sarcasm
okey doke. I finally got my Apex 460 (telefunken RTF clone) the other day form MusiciansBuy.com. I must say this is my first tube mic and I was impressed with how heavy the box was. Here's my two cents worth.
Packaging--cardboard box with foamish compartments which contain the mic inside it's vinyl pouch. 7 pin XLR and power cables. Power supply unit with polar pattern selection. Shiny chromish shock mount. Foam windscreen.
I'll start with the small stuff first.
The power supply unit was a little jacked. the silk screening is on slightly angled on the rear and the front jacks for the 7 pin XLR and the mic 3 pin XLR are a little cockeyed as well. Oh well...maybe the factory in china is on a hill.
Shock mount is all chromed out. With out trying to scratch at it I can't tell if it's just chrome paint or not but I suspect it is. I doubt they chrome dipped these things. It seems like a pretty tight fit and there's enough tension in the holder I shouldn't have to worry about it strectching out unlike my MXL mounts did.
Mic... First thing I did was unscrew that puppy and check the innards against the website that compared it to the RTF. Yup...looks the same. The tube is unlabeled and even looks cheap upon closer glance of the filaments. The little plates/boards in it look like they were all cut uneven.
Setup....nice fit...it is a heavy mic so I had to pull out a tripod mic stand as it was too heavy for my metal base stand at the heighth/angle I had it at. The 7-pin XLR cable seems sturdy but the pins itself look dangerously thin. I know I am going to have to take care when I plug unplug this thing to keep from bending the pins.
Sound....Plugged it into my joe meek pre amp pulled up a vocals/piano song I have been recording. I redid my vocals which were originally done with my KSM27. 1st track redone with the Apex 460 was lack for a better word crap. There was no presence and the highs seem to roll off amazingly low. I have a tenor voice with not much low end so the loss of highs was extremely noticable. The noise floor was acceptable and unnoticable with the piano mix. The mids were'nt accentuated any as compared to my ksm27. All in all I thought the sound was muffled...almost as if it was too much tube warmth just without any harmonics giving it clarity
Now that I am on the verge of being pissed about my new mic...I decide to swap out the cheap china tube. The only spare tube I have is a Fender 12aX7 I bought for my fender twin. I yank out the old tube which happens to be a **** hair shorter than the nipple on the fender. I had to remove the top tension spring to get the fender tube to slide into place. I hooked it back up and did a second take. Lo and behold I now have presence and a resemblance of a decent clarity. The range of my voice is even and I now have usable range recorded that I can now eq to get my sound. The mic still lacks the smoothness of my KSM27 but it is getting there.
Once I experiment with some more tubes I am sure I will have a very useful mic. Hell, I might even change the transformer if I get a wild hair up my ass.
Keep in mind this was just on vocals...I'm gonna have to wait until I get some serious freetime to check it out on my acoustic guitars or grand piano.
All in all....not a bad investment if you feel like playing with tubes for a few recordings to get a good sound.
I'm content with my purchase. its going into my locker and not e-BAY.
Packaging--cardboard box with foamish compartments which contain the mic inside it's vinyl pouch. 7 pin XLR and power cables. Power supply unit with polar pattern selection. Shiny chromish shock mount. Foam windscreen.
I'll start with the small stuff first.
The power supply unit was a little jacked. the silk screening is on slightly angled on the rear and the front jacks for the 7 pin XLR and the mic 3 pin XLR are a little cockeyed as well. Oh well...maybe the factory in china is on a hill.
Shock mount is all chromed out. With out trying to scratch at it I can't tell if it's just chrome paint or not but I suspect it is. I doubt they chrome dipped these things. It seems like a pretty tight fit and there's enough tension in the holder I shouldn't have to worry about it strectching out unlike my MXL mounts did.
Mic... First thing I did was unscrew that puppy and check the innards against the website that compared it to the RTF. Yup...looks the same. The tube is unlabeled and even looks cheap upon closer glance of the filaments. The little plates/boards in it look like they were all cut uneven.
Setup....nice fit...it is a heavy mic so I had to pull out a tripod mic stand as it was too heavy for my metal base stand at the heighth/angle I had it at. The 7-pin XLR cable seems sturdy but the pins itself look dangerously thin. I know I am going to have to take care when I plug unplug this thing to keep from bending the pins.
Sound....Plugged it into my joe meek pre amp pulled up a vocals/piano song I have been recording. I redid my vocals which were originally done with my KSM27. 1st track redone with the Apex 460 was lack for a better word crap. There was no presence and the highs seem to roll off amazingly low. I have a tenor voice with not much low end so the loss of highs was extremely noticable. The noise floor was acceptable and unnoticable with the piano mix. The mids were'nt accentuated any as compared to my ksm27. All in all I thought the sound was muffled...almost as if it was too much tube warmth just without any harmonics giving it clarity
Now that I am on the verge of being pissed about my new mic...I decide to swap out the cheap china tube. The only spare tube I have is a Fender 12aX7 I bought for my fender twin. I yank out the old tube which happens to be a **** hair shorter than the nipple on the fender. I had to remove the top tension spring to get the fender tube to slide into place. I hooked it back up and did a second take. Lo and behold I now have presence and a resemblance of a decent clarity. The range of my voice is even and I now have usable range recorded that I can now eq to get my sound. The mic still lacks the smoothness of my KSM27 but it is getting there.
Once I experiment with some more tubes I am sure I will have a very useful mic. Hell, I might even change the transformer if I get a wild hair up my ass.
Keep in mind this was just on vocals...I'm gonna have to wait until I get some serious freetime to check it out on my acoustic guitars or grand piano.
All in all....not a bad investment if you feel like playing with tubes for a few recordings to get a good sound.
I'm content with my purchase. its going into my locker and not e-BAY.
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