You all think this sony c800g clone will be a flop?

xeawr said:

microphones. The sE RNT comes to mind as well, being a high quality (I guess) microphone with the corresponding price tag. I guess the buyers are out there somewhere, else they wouldn't be doing it, right?

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Yes, there's definitely a market for high priced microphones but normally from manufacturers that have an high end reputation.
In your example SE was clever enough to have the Rupert Neve name there.

In the case of Golden Age, it's a company that is known for very cheap chinese Neve preamp clones.
Very cheap clones...
And now a 3800€ microphone, LOLOLOLOLOL
Doesn't seem to me their popularity is in the same market as the High End Brands (Neumann included)

Well regarding Golden Age - it's "Golden Age Premier" really, so that is theoretically a different brand for hq stuff, but I understand that a cheap N*** clone comes to mind when you hear the "Golden Age"...

speaking of the GAP, I kinda regret selling my 73mkIII, they did give me really nice records in a production I tracked last year. But I had some underwhelming experiences with those as well... never mind 

xeawr said:

Well regarding Golden Age - it's "Golden Age Premier" really, so that is theoretically a different brand for hq stuff, but I understand that a cheap N*** clone comes to mind when you hear the "Golden Age"...

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There's a lot of affordable microphones that are really good and perfectly capable of achieving great recordings,
all T Bone microphones come to my mind (as a lot of Chinese cheap mics)

To spend 3800€ for a mic, I need (and a studio needs) something more, I need also a Wow factor to my clients for example.
Neumann, Schoeps, DPA, Telefunken, Sony make my customers more confident. I don't need those to make good recordings, but the customer confidence is really important.

Customers will not be confident by Golden Age brand for their lead vocalist, and I will not waste session time trying to convince them that Golden Age Premier is different than Golden Age, it will be a waste of time.  Not a big enough name difference

"Just put the Neumann please"

That’s right. Pull out the Neumanns for guaranteed passable results with the bill-paying gigs that no actually cares about. Pull out all the off-brand and unbranded mics when people actually care what it sounds like. What a twisted world.

You can't make a name by making cheap clones, and getting tou Brand into the affordable market and then just release a 4000€ product, doesn't work like that from a marketing perspective.

Imagine Behringer, after so many years of consolidating  the brand's name in the economical range and normally the cheapest alternative in the store, now releasing a 100 000€ console in the SSL and Neve price range. Lololololol
Would not make sense

But off course Uli would never  make a mistake like that he is a really amazing bussiness man.

He didn't even put Behringer name in Behringers made cheap vintage gear clones, he used Klark Teknik brand. Even for the transformers Midas stickers were used.

Presonus did it when they released the ADL 600 tube preamp and that sold well. But it wasn't as expensive as this clone mic.

If anybody gets their hands on this, I'd love to see what the internals look like.

It's really the capsule I want to know about. I have a feeling it's a Chinese capsule like in a lot of clone mics (I think I said this before in the thread, but frankly as long as the capsule is well made I don't care where it originates, even some Telefunkens are using the Chinese CK12 capsules now I hear). I'm also curious about how the circuit and components actually compare to the original

This price is like someone building a U87 clone using a cheap K67 capsule copy, and decent components (by which I mean not bottom of the barrel capacitors, etc), and then charging $1500. Actually, there are a lot of U87 clones using Chinese capsules that cost not quite that much, but still like $700. I'd rather just pay someone to mod an existing mic to sound like a U87 (or "U67" minus the tube) than pay that much for a clone using Chinese components. Especially when mics like the BM-600 and AKG P420 are around for cheap, and I actually really like a lot of the U87 clones people on here have built.

Icantthinkofaname said:

If anybody gets their hands on this, I'd love to see what the internals look like.

It's really the capsule I want to know about. I have a feeling it's a Chinese capsule like in a lot of clone mics (I think I said this before in the thread, but frankly as long as the capsule is well made I don't care where it originates, even some Telefunkens are using the Chinese CK12 capsules now I hear). I'm also curious about how the circuit and components actually compare to the original

This price is like someone building a U87 clone using a cheap K67 capsule copy, and decent components (by which I mean not bottom of the barrel capacitors, etc), and then charging $1500. Actually, there are a lot of U87 clones using Chinese capsules that cost not quite that much, but still like $700. I'd rather just pay someone to mod an existing mic to sound like a U87 (or "U67" minus the tube) than pay that much for a clone using Chinese components. Especially when mics like the BM-600 and AKG P420 are around for cheap, and I actually really like a lot of the U87 clones people on here have built.

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The GA800 isn't on the GAP site anymore. I guess he got a lot of bad  reviews. We will see what they do with the Mk 2. 
https://goldenagepremier.com/

You can see the insides here

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GA800G--golden-age-project-ga-800g-large-diaphragm-tube-condenser-microphone

Deadrecords said:

The GA800 isn't on the GAP site anymore. I guess he got a lot of bad  reviews.

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Off course,
they eventually realized their brand name doesn't have enough recognition or confidence for a 3800€ microphone.

Positive review with soundsamples where they compare it to a Sony C-800G:
https://www.bonedo.de/artikel/einzelansicht/golden-age-premier-ga-800g-test.html

Often reviews work like: "If you give us a good review, you can keep it"...

RuudNL said:

Often reviews work like: "If you give us a good review, you can keep it"...

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I am convinced it often works that way. I just thought that the sound-samples could be interesting.

RuudNL said:

Often reviews work like: "If you give us a good review, you can keep it"...

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The only mic manufacturers I've seen do that are rebranders like Tonor and Neewer and other Chinese companies. I have seen iSK send somebody their cheaper mics like the dynamic and Little Gem and CM-20, though I don't know if they were on a "good review equals free mic" basis.

I know companies like the Chinese rebranders give free mics for good reviews. Synco offers people a big discount or a free video mic ($50 or so value" for giving their Mic D2 shotgun mic 5 stars on Amazon, I've seen the other Chinese companies on Amazon offer a free product for a 5 star review, though sometimes they want a 5 star one just for sending you the product to review with seemingly no promise of keeping the mic.

I'd be surprised if Golden Age does it, but there's got to be some incentive to give such an overpriced copy a good review. But for anybody actually interested in a C800G clone of questionable accuracy, they should probably just get the one from Advanced Audio. I doubt it sounds the same as a C800G, but it's probably close enough, and I doubt this one is any closer.

I'm surprised at the amount of good reviews I've seen of a couple boutique North American manufacturers when the mics in question are noticeably different from the ones their based on.  I won't name name's, but how is it possible to make$200+ capsules that sound worse than Chinese capsules costing $30-50, while also seemingly having worse QC for the price? There's no way people giving said mics good reviews haven't been bought off.

Though if I were offered a $900+ microphone for free, it's hard to say I wouldn't give it a good review. Though I'd rather be paid off in cash than mediocre microphones. I'd still talk shit about the microphone under a different name though if I really didn't like it.

Deadrecords said:

The GA800 isn't on the GAP site anymore. I guess he got a lot of bad  reviews. We will see what they do with the Mk 2. 
https://goldenagepremier.com/

You can see the insides here

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GA800G--golden-age-project-ga-800g-large-diaphragm-tube-condenser-microphone

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It is still on the GAP website, just go to 'premier line'. https://goldenagepremier.com/ga-800g/

I had a C800G and compared it to the GAP. It’s very very hard to say which mic was used on recordings.
After 2 months I sold my C800G because the difference is so minimal and kept the GAP mic.