microphone bias and reasons

[rob aylestone]

I actually totally agree. I’m getting increasingly grumpy with young people who really believe their opinions count more than mine, but also some of the oldies who maintain this idea that old is best. I thought I had an open mind, but clearly, I was sort of guilty because my memory prevented me even plugging some things in. In the 90’s I had two AKG C1000 mics. The common view at that time was they were better for using as a hammer. Despite having them, I believed the comments of the day. Stopped trusting my ears and when I pulled one out recently, I discovered I rather liked them, as a few stalwarts had insisted for 30 years. They were right. I was wrong. I still like my Celestion monitors from the 80s, and my Adams far less. I’m also so certain of my strange decisions they are normal. Here in the U.K., owning a classic uncomfortable, ultra farmer Landrover is fashionable and really old ones cost huge amounts. Owning a Range Rover has always been considered stupid. Unreliable, over complicated and really expensive. The only person who was on TV who constantly laughed at them, but owned one, was Jeremy Clarkson, a motor celebrity, who managed to get his TV programme and cast and crew banned from the USA for being disrespectful to certain states. I bought one. Best car I have ever owned, despite all the times it has to be fixed. I wish that was the same as my Revox and Tascam reel to reels, which are equally unreliable but are not making me happy!

 

[Slouching Raymond]

My brother drove a second-hand land-rover for years. Then he swapped it for an older one.

 

[CoolCat]

heres an interesting BIAS comment on "less expensive therefore lesser sound quality......." and the RODE mics in a pro-studio. Its always strange RODE cancelled their Classic tube mics but they got praise from pro's and the Adele platinum album- lead vocal mic. ?

 

[rob aylestone]

A couple of years back in a too and forth whatsapp message with a Thomann rep, she mentioned returns for in warranty issues and tube mics were higher than other types simply because they are fragile and wear out. the types of tubes seem to have a lifespan of 10,000 hours at best with 3000 hours quoted as worst case - but I wonder if people (the lazy ones like me, maybe) plug them in and forget they're on - burning away the hours like a lightbulb in an unused store room?
Maybe Rode liked having very good reliability stats, and the tube mics were eating it away?

 

[TalismanRich]

The fellow who hosts our monthly jams has a Rode NTK set up for the vocals. A few months back, it started acting strange.. pops and hash sounds. We swapped out the mic and went on our way.

The following month, the NTK was back. He tracked the issue down to a tube going bad. I don't know how many years he's been using that mic, but he said it was the first time he ever had a problem with it.

 

[CoolCat]

I think older folk more familiar with tubes aren't surprised to need a new tube and its not a big deal.
Its really not a big swap for a microphone tube. I agree that changing a tube doesn't mean the product is crap, its just a tube....swap it...be happy. Roll up for the Magcial Mystery Tube...

I recall guitar amps constantly buzzing and popping and had a shoe box of tubes for the bar gigs....and the Era of new Transistor Amps were seen as some
freedom from the tube-hell. SUNN! amps..(.It took awhile to realize they didn't sound as good, but in bars nothing sounded that good. )

The mic tube thing, was mentioned by WARM AUDIO owner in a video, a # 1 return issue were tubes. And was a main thing to "fix" at the company.
Dynamics are maintenance free but tube-mics have some gear-lust vibe at times. Not every mic is built like a SM57 or SM7b that can be abused and keeps working.

Off topic? I just grabbed a Art MPA II for $199, should be here today. I've tried 2 or 3 before, but prices coming back down to normal, I thought its a good unit from $200, hiplate or low plate Voltage and has the Variable Impedance, Meters (if they work) and a DUAL preamp for $199 is decent. Two tubes, maybe pop in a couple 7025tubes...like their Reference Series MPA. I always wanted to try the MPA/VLA combo but never did. The VLA don't get nearly as much love as the MPA preamp do.

On topic of BIAS and mics & gear, the MPA "blind tested" really well in the SOS article beating high dollar rack units and the street- test, the Art minisolo preamp MP was picked over the GreatRiver $1200 preamp vs $70 preamp....in sound , (maybe not in build or quality...but that's fine. Read Great River is closing its doors too). I would have tried a Great River for $500 but not $1100 and there's rarely a used one for sale. The Grace M101 was the counter half space and those are $500 ish used. MPA II is a dual- for 200$ used.
$100 vs $500. ART gear was kind of like RODE, cheaper and assumed to sound worse......... but the "blind tests" showed this wasn't the case. I do see ART gear maybe not built tank tough, but the RODE mics Ive had were built exceptionally well. I think Ive owned only 2 or 3, but well built. I don't know ART, they were USA then did the China thing that gave a "entry level" image.

 

[TalismanRich]

I think older folk more familiar with tubes aren't surprised to need a new tube and its not a big deal.
Its really not a big swap for a microphone tube. I agree that changing a tube doesn't mean the product is crap, its just a tube....swap it...be happy. Roll up for the Magcial Mystery Tube...

It wasn't much of an issue when you could go down to Radio Shack or even the Taylor drug store, pick up a tube for $3 or $4 after testing it in their tube tester, go home and plug it in. Yeah, that's the way it was back then. I remember our bass player blowing out a couple of power tubes in his YBA3 amp. On break, he ran down to the store and bought a couple of new tubes, plugged them in and was back up in under 20 minutes.

Today, it's a bit more of an issue when you have to spend $100 for a pair of tubes, ordered through the mail, hoping that the post office doesn't crush the package. And of course everyone needs to use NOS tubes (there isn't an infinitely supply of those!!!) Yeah, sometimes you might find an old repair shop that has a stash of tubes bought 50 years ago before transistors took over, but those are pretty well gone today. Plus, most of the tubes are NOT 12AX7s, 6550s, 6L6s or EL84s. Not many mics or amps use 2AH2 or 6FJ7 tubes!

 

[CoolCat]

funny....you describe something just before my buying gear started, I recall the tube testers in the stores but didn't use them much, if at all.
we bought the tubes and had a lot of tube amplifier issues. No tube mics... theyre even easier and safer to swap. $3 or $4, sounds cheap today.
I dumped too much on small tubes a few months ago, Id recommend doing a lot of reading and buying some new. The Warm mic stock tube did fine and was quiet, very quiet but I wanted to play technician a bit..

the hybrid preamp tubes and SS/Discrete power design is pretty good on some guitar amps and preamps, it adds some flavor that is noticeable sometimes. Aphex 107/207 and other Aphex and PreAmp tubes. Mics...I have a Jones to try a RODE Classic but they are too expensive, the K2 was liked by some pro's and the NTK by others....the NTV was dropped I think for the NTK. Cardiod only...

then I see, switching to no tube, the P420 is on Sale again, $149 new on Amazon multi pattern- U87AI circuit.....well built tank tough , good sounding. I think Ill get another to have Dual- Figure 8's. $149 for case, shock, great mic...multi pattern too. surface mount- super quiet.

 

[TalismanRich]

Can you imagine having to retube a Cordovox system today? It would cost a fortune. This was just the tone generator portion. Joe, our keyboardist from the early 70s had one, along with his Vox Dual Continental organ.

 

[Papanate]

Can you imagine having to retube a Cordovox system today? It would cost a fortune. This was just the tone generator portion. Joe, our keyboardist from the early 70s had one, along with his Vox Dual Continental organ.

View attachment 153120

It was ridiculously expensive back in the 1960s when the Tone Generator came out - $198 if you replace all 66 tubes -
thankfully it didn’t wear the tubes out - they could easily go 5 or 6 years before any of the tubes would show wear - and generally
they could go 10 years before replacement was needed - The tubes on the right would burn out in a year or so of consistent playing.

 

[CoolCat]

that made me laugh...thanks.... 66 tubes!!

I just got this used Art MPAII.at the door....it looked mint....plugged in and both channels bad shape , ch 2 was trashed out unusable..powered down,
installed 2 old tubes and seems to be fine.

Pretty sure this unit was never opened due to the screws looking untouched, anyway... PSVANE E883 out, Unit 10/2021.
Installed some old Marshall EC883 laying around...thinking a new pair but hmmm? The tubes cost half the price of the unit.

Couldnt imagine 66 tubes, yikes!

 

[DrewPeterson7]

In the 90’s I had two AKG C1000 mics. The common view at that time was they were better for using as a hammer. Despite having them, I believed the comments of the day. Stopped trusting my ears and when I pulled one out recently, I discovered I rather liked them, as a few stalwarts had insisted for 30 years.

It's funny - within the last couple months I've tacked a big studio update - moved into our current house two years ago with a newborn and basically just set my desk up to get working as fast as I could since I couldn't get out for long training rides on my road bike during baby's naps, but I could pick up a guitar and write music for 30minutes at a time and drop everything ASAP if I needed to. Within the last... two or so months, I guess, I repainted the room, bought a new desk, added some acoustic treatment, etc. But as part of that process, specifically the painting, I had to empty the room out and then move everything back in.

And... I kind of forgot I had a pair of those, as well as a C3000. I should probably pull them back out, they were recommended to me years ago (mid-2000s?) and honestly for the money they were probably about as good a set of SDCs I could have hoped for, but I don't even remember what they sounded like. I do know that my recordings of my acoustic now are a lot better than from back then... but we're talking a mid-90s Martin that was ten years old and is now 30, much, much better preamps, much more experience with placement, and at least somewhat better mixing skills, so who knows.

 

[Papanate]

And... I kind of forgot I had a pair of those, as well as a C3000. I should probably pull them back out, they were recommended to me years ago (mid-2000s?)

I used a pair of C1000s on lots of things back in the day - the thing with Microphone assessments is they were mostly incredibly biased back in the day - well not that they aren’t now - but there are multitudes of choices these days - and rarely are there any bad Microphones - just bad ‘engineers’.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

I used a pair of C1000s on lots of things back in the day - the thing with Microphone assessments is they were mostly incredibly biased back in the day - well not that they aren’t now - but there are multitudes of choices these days - and rarely are there any bad Microphones - just bad ‘engineers’.

The guy who recommended them to me made no bones about the fact he liked them because they looked like light sabers. Which is fair.

But, in lets call it 2025, for a first set of condenser mics where I really wanted a matched pair to learn how to record an acoustic in stereo (my how the times have changed, lol) I don't know if I could have done better, either, for the probably $299 for both I paid. So I'd be hard pressed to say I didn't get my money's worth.

I'll try to find a reason to pull them out again, but I gotta finish this project I'm in the middle of first.