Marik
Pro Microphone Design
Re: Oktava 012 and QC
This weekend our local Guitar Center had a special for Oktavas--buy one for $99.99 and get second free. I could not resist and decided to give it a try. The guys in GC were nice enough to let me go through all 012's (18) they had in stock, so I spent good couple hours going through all of them. First, I checked all the capsules, using the same preamp body and listening to the same tracks. Out of 18 I found ONE, which was good, actually it was very good, in fact I was surprised how good it was. Very accurate, well balanced sound, with great bass, and smooth top. Since I had to find a matching pair, as a mate for this capsule I ended up taking one with about 1db lower output and slightly bit more midrangy. It was impossible to find a closer match. All the rest were whether top or mid oriented. Many of them sounded very harsh and unpleasant, lacking bass and depth. I found another pair, which sonded decent, but not nearly as good as this one. Interesting enough (this trick I learned from RO forum), I measured the capasitance of the capsules, and the best one had 48 pf, and the second 47 pf, which makes me think that they have slightly different spacing.
Next step-- I will upgrade the pre of the mic with nice capasitors and then make some serious comparisons with my 451E and KM84.
I saw a lot of questions about different models of 012's, so FYI:
The letter "A" after 012 means for distributing inside of Russia, no letter--export model. It is an interesting practice in Russia. Since communist regim, export models always meant to be of better quality.
MK 012 -- three capsules
MK 012-01-- with cardioid only
Also, MK means--mikrophon kondensatorniy (condenser), and ML--mikrophon lentochniy (ribbon).
This weekend our local Guitar Center had a special for Oktavas--buy one for $99.99 and get second free. I could not resist and decided to give it a try. The guys in GC were nice enough to let me go through all 012's (18) they had in stock, so I spent good couple hours going through all of them. First, I checked all the capsules, using the same preamp body and listening to the same tracks. Out of 18 I found ONE, which was good, actually it was very good, in fact I was surprised how good it was. Very accurate, well balanced sound, with great bass, and smooth top. Since I had to find a matching pair, as a mate for this capsule I ended up taking one with about 1db lower output and slightly bit more midrangy. It was impossible to find a closer match. All the rest were whether top or mid oriented. Many of them sounded very harsh and unpleasant, lacking bass and depth. I found another pair, which sonded decent, but not nearly as good as this one. Interesting enough (this trick I learned from RO forum), I measured the capasitance of the capsules, and the best one had 48 pf, and the second 47 pf, which makes me think that they have slightly different spacing.
Next step-- I will upgrade the pre of the mic with nice capasitors and then make some serious comparisons with my 451E and KM84.
I saw a lot of questions about different models of 012's, so FYI:
The letter "A" after 012 means for distributing inside of Russia, no letter--export model. It is an interesting practice in Russia. Since communist regim, export models always meant to be of better quality.
MK 012 -- three capsules
MK 012-01-- with cardioid only
Also, MK means--mikrophon kondensatorniy (condenser), and ML--mikrophon lentochniy (ribbon).
The folks at mine will let me test mics all day long if I want. I usually just have them set me up and turn me loose. Then they can go off and help other customers in the mean time.
)
