Emperor-TK
Well-known member
Quite a few of you have asked how this mic sounds, and I've been hesitant to answer. Up until now, I've only briefly listened to the mic through headphones in my home studio, and with a random tube. Let me elaborate a little on our shootout.
For the shootout, we went to my friends "real studio", a Manzella tuned room with some real nice gear. We used Shep Neve 31105's for the pres and monitored through Genelec 1031a's with a Miller and Kreisel sub. We put the M7 directly up against three other U-47 inspired mics, the Wunder CM7, Wunder CM7-GT, and a home brew with a Dale M7, EF86 and Chinese transformer. I've previously borrowed the Wunder CM7 and was immensely impressed. As far as I was concerned, it was in a different league then anything else I have previously built or own.
It was immediately obvious that the home brew wasn't in the same class as the MK7 and Wunders. It lacked the clarity, presence and three dimensionality and fell out of the shootout pretty fast. What we were left with was three mics of exceptional quality, any of which would have given a world class recording. But if I were in a pro audio store shopping for a mic for MY voice (and they were all priced the same), I would have left with the MK7. I felt the the MK7 had a very slightly more forward sound, with a touch more 3D. Comparatively, there was an ever so slight bit of smear on the Wunders. And between the two Wunders, I would have chosen the cheaper CM7-GT with the EF86 and non repro body/grille over the EF-14 and repro body CM7, but again, all three were very similar.
I left this shootout a little surprised. I expected the MK7 to be good, but not this good. All three mics used the same Thiersch mylar M7s, but the MK7 didn't have the hallowed VF-14/EF-14 tube, and had a cheap-ass Chinese grill/body, with the wrong mesh/internal geometry. This leaves me to wonder about weather or not the importance of these two features has been overstated. I collect vintage guitars, so I'm used to dealing with runaway fokelore. I'm not saying that there was no difference between the different grills or tubes, there was. I'm just saying that my initial impression is that the differences have possibly been overstated. To be fair though, I should also point out that this shootout was done for voice only. The grill differences might show up more with source material containing more HF information, like a drum room. Also, one thing I haven't mentioned yet is that we also rolled tubes in the MK7. The differences between two EF86 samples was MUCH greater than between the better EF86 and the EF-14. Somewhat surprisingly, the Russian Svetlana tube trounced my NOS GE. Both were completely noise free, but the GE had a blanketed smear compared to the Svetlana. I also had an Amprex Bugle Boy with me that unfortunately didn't work.
Later on we tried some other mics that weren't as similar to a U-47. We did a Soundelux 251, a Brauner VM-1, a Royer Mojave circuit with Dales C37 capsule, and a new Gus design (can't reveal details yet). There were some really nice mics here, but nothing to put a damper on my excitement over the MK7. Let me also add a teaser that Gus new design is something really really special, and I say this after having heard a lot of Gus' work.
My conclusions:
1. The MK7 mic costing $1000 to build is every bit as good as well crafted $3000-$7000 U-47 type mics.
2. I found less effect from grill/body (for vocals) than I expected, and probably won't bother migrating the mic to Skylar's body.
3. I found bigger differences between EF-86's than between a particular EF-86 and an EF-14.
4. Max, you've done a great thing for this community. Thanks.
Edit: just wanted to point out that my initial impression about the mic being "woolly" was due to the GE tube. No more wooliness with the Svetlana tube.
For the shootout, we went to my friends "real studio", a Manzella tuned room with some real nice gear. We used Shep Neve 31105's for the pres and monitored through Genelec 1031a's with a Miller and Kreisel sub. We put the M7 directly up against three other U-47 inspired mics, the Wunder CM7, Wunder CM7-GT, and a home brew with a Dale M7, EF86 and Chinese transformer. I've previously borrowed the Wunder CM7 and was immensely impressed. As far as I was concerned, it was in a different league then anything else I have previously built or own.
It was immediately obvious that the home brew wasn't in the same class as the MK7 and Wunders. It lacked the clarity, presence and three dimensionality and fell out of the shootout pretty fast. What we were left with was three mics of exceptional quality, any of which would have given a world class recording. But if I were in a pro audio store shopping for a mic for MY voice (and they were all priced the same), I would have left with the MK7. I felt the the MK7 had a very slightly more forward sound, with a touch more 3D. Comparatively, there was an ever so slight bit of smear on the Wunders. And between the two Wunders, I would have chosen the cheaper CM7-GT with the EF86 and non repro body/grille over the EF-14 and repro body CM7, but again, all three were very similar.
I left this shootout a little surprised. I expected the MK7 to be good, but not this good. All three mics used the same Thiersch mylar M7s, but the MK7 didn't have the hallowed VF-14/EF-14 tube, and had a cheap-ass Chinese grill/body, with the wrong mesh/internal geometry. This leaves me to wonder about weather or not the importance of these two features has been overstated. I collect vintage guitars, so I'm used to dealing with runaway fokelore. I'm not saying that there was no difference between the different grills or tubes, there was. I'm just saying that my initial impression is that the differences have possibly been overstated. To be fair though, I should also point out that this shootout was done for voice only. The grill differences might show up more with source material containing more HF information, like a drum room. Also, one thing I haven't mentioned yet is that we also rolled tubes in the MK7. The differences between two EF86 samples was MUCH greater than between the better EF86 and the EF-14. Somewhat surprisingly, the Russian Svetlana tube trounced my NOS GE. Both were completely noise free, but the GE had a blanketed smear compared to the Svetlana. I also had an Amprex Bugle Boy with me that unfortunately didn't work.
Later on we tried some other mics that weren't as similar to a U-47. We did a Soundelux 251, a Brauner VM-1, a Royer Mojave circuit with Dales C37 capsule, and a new Gus design (can't reveal details yet). There were some really nice mics here, but nothing to put a damper on my excitement over the MK7. Let me also add a teaser that Gus new design is something really really special, and I say this after having heard a lot of Gus' work.
My conclusions:
1. The MK7 mic costing $1000 to build is every bit as good as well crafted $3000-$7000 U-47 type mics.
2. I found less effect from grill/body (for vocals) than I expected, and probably won't bother migrating the mic to Skylar's body.
3. I found bigger differences between EF-86's than between a particular EF-86 and an EF-14.
4. Max, you've done a great thing for this community. Thanks.
Edit: just wanted to point out that my initial impression about the mic being "woolly" was due to the GE tube. No more wooliness with the Svetlana tube.
I wish i had one to work on as i have been having the itch to make this mic but don't have max's nice transformer and PCB! :'( Anyway Thanks for the description of the shootout it is helpful to know what to expect!
