Tubeless, Transformerless Microphones

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Recording Engineer

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 30, 2013
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Location
Sacramento, CA
It has dawned on me that the last 3 condenser microphones I’ve bought have been tubeless and transformerless and I’m not missing them in these microphones!

-Petter Berndalen/Jörgen Thuresson BT67
-Nordic Audio Labs NU-100K
-NIKFI KMN16

Gus, I’m patiently waiting for yours!
 
Did searches and did not find much information about any of the three microphones
 
No not much of anything out there about any of them.

The BT67 is with a cardioid-only Chinese capsule I’m pretty-sure (stock, custom, or otherwise, I have not inquired), trying to capture the essence of a U67 without a tube and transformer; ala TLM-67. I haven’t used a TLM-67 to compare, but they did a great job to my ears!

Petter sent me this picture.
 

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Martin Kantola’s NU-100K is definitely out of this world with his own 30mm capsule with a 6-micron aluminum diaphragm. This microphone proves to my ears that you don’t have to use a tube or transformer to make a true new classic in every sense of the word.
 

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The KMN16 is definitely it’s own brand new cardioid-only thing, brought about by the same developer as the Elation Microphones KM Series. There’s also a KMN15 cardioid-only, but in the few samples I was able to find, finely going over NIKFI’s website, my ear consistently was more excited about the 16, which seemed to have a more interesting texture and more intimate sound. If I was going for a more accurate sound, the 15 would be the one.

Still, to be honest though, I was surprised to find in its tiny booklet that the 16 has the more top-end boost between the two. It also has about a 40mV/Pa sensitivity! All this obviously indicates it was designed for far-field. Funny how, based on the samples, I thought the 16 might be nice for spot miking.

I was told they both have large diaphragms, but based on the glimpses I catch, it seems more like a medium-size, to my surprise. If guessing around 20mm or so.

Regardless, this microphone is no joke and clearly all designed from the ground-up as much as possible, from the inside out! It’s lovely.

As you can see, the capsule is on quite a long stand and sits pretty-high up in the egg.
 

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Recording Engineer said:
Martin Kantola’s NU-100K is definitely out of this world with his own 30mm capsule with a 6-micron aluminum diaphragm. This microphone proves to my ears that you don’t have to use a tube or transformer to make a true new classic in every sense of the word.

That mic is fantastic !!
 
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