Looking for info on Calrad and Kay

[hairylarry]

Looking for info on Calrad and Kay now with Harp Mic Shootout

Hi,

I recently aquired some Calrad and Kay microphones. Vintage. Pre XLR.

I scoured the internet and came up blank. Does anyone know where I can find spec sheets or any other info on these mics?

Scroll down for comparison takes on the Calrad, a Turner, and a Shure.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Calrad (short for "California Radio) was a distributor of low cost electronic parts and Japanese microphones in the 60's. They're still around today. They operated out of a small building on Highland Ave. in Los Angeles.

 

[hairylarry]

Calrad

Harvey,

Yeah, the DM-9 says Made in Japan on the box. On their web site I found this page.

http://www.calrad.com/calrad/index2.htm

Below all the tech support links is a history of the company from 1866 to 2002.

Unfortunately nothing on the DM-9. I sent them an email.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry

 

[hairylarry]

Harp Mic Shootout

Comparing three harp mics.

Calrad DM-9
Turner CX
Shure 545D

I got two Calrads at a flea market and know nothing about them. I searched the
internet and found several references to them as harp mics.

The Turner CX is a classic "bullet" harp mic. It has a crystal element. David
Kott wrote this at http://greenbulletmics.com.

The most popular of the Turners are the CD and CX mic's, which were dynamic (CD)
and crystal (CX). The CD has a strong output and very good tone. They had a very
good low end, strong mid's and decent high end, although not as gritty as the
Shures. The CX has a very strong output with a good bottom end as well as a
responsive high end.

The Shure is a vocal mic, a predecessor to the SM57. It is also a classic harp
mic and my usual rig.

I ran into a Fender Frontman solid state guitar amp with the reverb on 3.

The Calrad had the most output of any of the mics. The volume was almost all the
way down and the mid and treble were also cut. It also has the grittiest,
dirtiest sound and the combination of high output and gritty sound is sure to
cut through a band.

For the other mics I just adjusted the volume. Way up for the Turner with the
Shure in between. The Turner probably needed more mids and maybe treble. Still
it sounds real good in the test with less grit then the Calrad but still dirty
bluesy. You can hear a little bit of the Howlin Wolf distorted vocal sound the
bullet mics are famous for.

The Shure is a vocal mic and a cardiod dynamic which means proximity effect.
This is immediately apparent even just talking through it so it makes me think
both of the other mics are omnis. The Shure also has a rounder fuller tone.
Still bluesy but the grit is gone.

To keep the vintage theme going I pointed my SM56 at the speaker and recorded
the takes to my Fostex VF160. Then very little compression and normalization.
with no EQ or other post processing. Then Exact Audio copy used lame to make VBR
mp3s.

My apologies to mshilarious for not including the 520DX Green Bullet. I do have
a couple more vintage harp mics so if I get a hold of a 520 I may do this again.

So what's my evaluation of the Calrad DM-9. Let me put it this way. It didn't go
back on the shelf. It went in my gig bag. Along with my Turner and my Shure.


Thanks to archive.org for hosting the clips. Listen to the VBR mp3s for the best
quality.


http://www.archive.org/details/calrad_dm-9_harp

http://www.archive.org/details/turner_cx_harp

http://www.archive.org/details/shure_545d


Thanks,

Hairy Larry