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It's stylish, intriguing and packs a valve. Dave Foister investigates the latest in German mic chic
Of all the companies to have emerged from the Eastern Bloc, Microtech Gefell stands out as having caught the eye of the upper end of the market. I use the term advisedly, as the looks of its microphones have often attracted as much attention as their performance, helping the range to establish itself more quickly than it might otherwise have done. Recently a new model has been jumping out of the ads with a particularly outlandish appearance, which turns out to be a curtain-raiser for the similarly unexpected internal design.
The UM 900 is as far as I know the first valve microphone to hit the market that can run from 48V phantom power - no bulky power supplies, no special cables, no hum loop problems, just an apparently normal microphone built round a valve. That all the circuitry including the valve's heater can run off just 4mA strains credulity- many solid-state microphones draw more than that.
The bold styling makes the UM 900 unmissable, but according to Microtech it's for practical acoustic purposes rather than cosmetic, minimising the reflection of sound off the body into the capsule. Of course it is.
The design leaves the 1-inch dual-diaphragm capsule sitting in its own disc-shaped enclosure...