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Free mic stand! While supplies last, receive a free A-379 microphone stand when you purchase any microphone over $199 from Kelly’s Music & Computers! (Offer valid only in the US, lower 48 states. Not valid in Canada or outside the US. While supplies last.)
Best value & service guaranteed! We must advertise our prices at the MAP (Minimum Advertised Price), but our price commitment still applies to M-Audio products.
Multi-Pattern Large Diaphragm Vacuum Tube Condenser Microphone
Based on a classic vacuum tube design and manufactured in state-of-the-art facilities to exacting standards, this multi-pattern, large diaphragm studio condenser delivers the lush, classic sound normally associated with rare and expensive vintage mics like the Neumann U47 and AKG C12. Sputnik’s combination of hand-picked military-grade vacuum tube, ultra sensitive evaporated gold Mylar diaphragm, solid brass construction, and multiple polar patterns makes it ideal for a wide variety of voices, instruments, and applications – especially putting that signature sound in the spotlight. M-Audio engineered this amazing microphone from scratch with input from top recording industry studio engineers. Finally, you can get a boutique quality microphone at a price that’s not in the stratosphere.
Features
- Vintage tube design (high output impedance cascode circuit)
- 3-micron evaporated gold Mylar diaphragm – extremely sensitive to musical nuances
- Low-current/high voltage 6205M pentode tube, wired in triode mode – linear behavior with graceful overload characteristics
- Cardioid, figure-8, and omni polar patterns – total studio flexibility
- Switchable -10dB (attenuation) pad
- Switchable 80Hz 2nd-order high-pass filter
- Custom tuning – spotlights vocals and instruments for signature sound
- Solid brass body with polished nickel finish
- Dedicated power supply with included 7-pin cable
- Professional shockmount
- Soft cloth bag
- Custom flight case
Signature Sound
Great sounding vocals and other acoustic tracks start with the microphone itself. Building on years of expertise, the engineering team conducted exhaustive research into this phenomenon and established just what gives the top high-end studio condensers their ineffable qualities. Then they distilled the best characteristics of these classic vacuum tube designs into one extraordinary mic with M-Audio’s trademark value pricing. In fact many listening test participants feel that the Sputnik mic exhibits the praised throaty lows and low-mids of the Neumann U47, along with the upper-mids and open airy highs of the AKG C12—making it ideal for faithfully capturing a wide variety of sources including male and female vocals.
More Than Just a Great Vocal Mic
Many microphones are best used for specific applications – which is why most engineers have a more-than-modest investment in a locker full of mics. Sputnik allows you to put any instrument in the spotlight – and selectable cardioid, omni, and figure-8 patterns give it the flexibility to be your ultimate secret weapon in the studio
Optimized Electronics
Sputnik’s Class A amplifier circuit is an all-discrete transconductance design based on thermionic studies by researchers at Harvard and the American Institute of Physics. The amp uses a classic cascode circuit to increase the gain-bandwidth product and eliminate the effects of parasitic capacitances, giving the system a wide frequency response. The resulting high output impedance makes the mic very tolerant of load conditions (it’s in the meg-ohm range so it acts like a perfect current source). And while the tube does all the heavy lifting, Sputnik’s head amp employs an n-channel depletion-mode JFET for biasing so you don’t get all the nasty artifacts like hum and crackle common to tube-only designs.
In essence, the Sputnik’s tube circuitry delivers ultra-smooth harmonic detail and rapid response to signals with fast rise/fall times, thereby eliminating transient problems. The amp is quite linear and features graceful overload characteristics and an enormous dynamic range due to high-voltage operation. These qualities simply cannot be achieved with a standard transistor amplifier or one of the more common Class A tube designs.
Solid Brass Backplate
Condenser mic design is based on the changing capacitance between the moving diaphragm and fixed backplate. Where many of today’s microphones cut corners with a metallized plastic backplate, the Sputnik features a precision-machined, solid brass backplate that yields much greater crucial rigidity, precise tolerances and faithful sonic reproduction. It uses a dual backplate design similar to the one that lends the AKG C12 its trademark open, airy quality. It also tunes the backplate for optimal on- and off-axis frequency and pickup response and pattern symmetry.
Custom Power Supply Delivers 200-Foot Cable Runs
The Sputnik's power supply features a sophisticated circuit designed to ensure optimal performance of the mic and audio signal path. It also features a voltage ramp-up when powered on in order to further extend tube life. As an added bonus, an automatic load-sensing circuit compensates for varying transmission line impedances, allowing you to run cables as long as 200 feet.
Vintage Tube Warmth
The Sputnik mic’s military-grade 6205M vacuum tube is a diminutive pentode wired as a triode; the output behavior is like that of a perfect current source so it’s tolerant of a wide range of load conditions. The tube operates at high voltages—allowing an enormous dynamic range—but with less heat dissipation than other designs. As a result, you can easily hang this mic upside down or use it upright without having to worry about overheating the capsule.
The tube itself is also mounted upside down to facilitate shorter connections that, in turn, make for more controlled impedance and less stray capacitance—a design trait shared by German mics like the revered Telefunken 251. The Sputnik also employs a socketless design eliminating the potential for impedance mismatch, signal deterioration and contact corrosion. What about changing tubes on the fly, you say? Research shows that tubes go bad within the first 10 hours of use. The Sputnik uses military-grade tubes to ensure the highest specs, consistency and reliability, then burns them in for a week so you don't have to worry about changing tubes in the first place.
Beauty is More Than Skin Deep
Sure, the Sputnik mic’s space-age “lollipop” design is cool, but it’s truly functional as well. It minimizes diffraction from the body, resulting in superior off-axis response. And the body itself is durable solid brass with an attractive polished nickel finish. Sputnik delivers in both performance and looks.
Close Tolerance for Matched Sets
Sputnik mics are manufactured with a close tolerance of ±1.5dB across the entire frequency range. This means that any two or more Sputnik mics you buy qualify as a matched set for stereo recording.
3-micron Evaporated Gold Diaphragm
A microphone’s ability to capture detail owes primarily to the thinness and uniformity of its diaphragm. Sputnik’s durable mylar diaphragm is an impressive 3 microns thin – a spec that carries a much higher price tag in most other mics. It also uses a high-precision evaporated 24-karat gold process to coat it for conductivity, which yields a much more uniform result than the sputtered gold or sprayed-on processes used in many other mics. Here, too, this delivers higher precision and tolerance within and between Sputnik mics. The specs on Sputnik’s diaphragm and backplate are only possible using computer-controlled manufacturing processes in a state-of-the-art facility.
Everything Included
With the Sputnik mic, you’ll be up and running as soon as you open the box. Each mic includes a:
- professional shockmount
- dedicated power supply
- 7-pin mic cable
- grounded IEC power supply
- soft cloth bag
- custom flight case.
All you need to do is plug it in and open up a channel.
Specifications
- Capsule: 3-micron thick Mylar with evaporated gold, double-sided
- Transconductance amplifier: 6205M pentode vacuum tube, wired as a triode, military grade selected
- Frequency response: 20Hz – 20kHz ±1.5dB
- Sensitivity: 30mV/Pa (-30.5dBV)
- Max. SPL for 0.5% THD: 132dB (or 142dB with 10dB pad)
- Equivalent noise level: 18dB (A-weighted)
- Output impedance: 200 ?, transformer isolated
- Recommended load impedance: > 1 k?
- Connectors: 7-pin male XLR for mic output to power supply; 3-pin male XLR for power supply output
- Attenuation and rolloff: switchable 10dB pad; switchable 80Hz 2nd-order (12dB/octave) rolloff
- Polar patterns: cardioid, omni, figure-8
- Size/weight: 8-1/4" (h) x 3" (w) x 2" (d); 1.6 lbs
Compatibility
- Octane
- Tampa
- DMP3
- ProjectMix I/O
- FireWire 1814
- FireWire 410
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