Happy 2026... and a new chapter

Thank you to all who got in under the wire to set up their tube mic mods before the cutoff on the first. We are officially now only focused on the boutique, original builds going forward; although I will probably have to spend much of the next 3 months catching up on all of the upgrade requests that have come through in the last couple of months, including many who got their orders in early but have deferred sending them in for a few months so as to not be without them for so long. I appreciate every customer who has obtained the mic mods over the past near decade that we've been doing them (since 2018 or so!) and I hope these mics live on as testaments to what 'could have been' on that line of tube mic products. I feel like we certainly made our point and were able to make hundreds of specimens of these mics that live up to their full potential, for the more discerning customers who can hear and appreciate that difference.

2025 was the right time to sunset the mic mods for so many reasons... One being that Signal Art has been reduced back down to just me working solo for the probable future and I'm just completely out of space and bandwidth. A second reason is that the main company (United) has finally come into its own to where it is my main daily focus, which means that SAE was becoming more of an after-hours second job that is continuing to be squeezed for time as the main company demands more and more of me. This is not a bad thing at all; in fact, this was the plan all along. SAE was always intended to bridge the gap as we built UT up into a more successful company, and now we are seeing that begin to happen. Lastly, and as many have noticed, UT are now manufacturing many of my very own takes on these classic types of tube mic models which are, to me at least, the definitive versions within their price range and far exceed the quality of even the modified, let alone unmodified units that we have seen or worked on over the years. That has kind of been my modus operandi: to come up with a unit that, out of the box, is just better than what's out there, and even better by a hair to an extensively modified unit. Over time, the remaining holes in our catalog will be filled in to where there are no real key products in that range of mics that are not better represented within the UT catalog. For that reason, I don't think it is in the best interest of UT to continue working on any competing products, esp. with the aim of elevating those products to a level that would leave one with less incentive to upgrade their situation with one of our UT versions.

SAE is not going anywhere as a whole, and I can promise you that. I will probably always take time to handcraft boutique mics for discerning customers until the day I go offline; but that aspect is the only part I will be making time for going forward. We will no longer be doing any upgrades, repairs, modifications, etc... I am strictly focusing on the select few handcrafted mics we offer, which include of course the various U48 and U47 renditions we offer as well as the solid state version (Spirit 47) as well as the upcoming tube M49 and solid state M49. These are the things I will continue to make time to do, because I get a great deal of fulfillment from making them... but they will be made only on demand, never rushed, and made one a a time for the specific client who orders it.

The one exception from the old SAE catalog will be the replacement/superior version PSU's that we manufactured for the WA-251 and WA-47 that we offer; because a number of them were pre-made and so I have a number of them packed up and ready to go out the door. However, once those are sold, they too will be taken off of the site. I won't be making any more of them.

What's next:

We hope to have the M49 in early production at least in limited numbers by middle of 2026... July at the very latest; we'll have to see how it goes.

We also have another version of the U47 tube circuit coming out that will utilize a modern valve and all contemporary components (12AT7 most likely, although somewhat flexible) due to the fact that EF800 and 408a pentodes (as used in both of our vintage circuits) are becoming rarer and more expensive in the long run, and while not nearly 'unobtainium' yet at this point, I just want to think ahead and develop a future-proofed version of the mic. I've been working on this design forever, and I can say that the PSU is one of the most audiophile things I've ever done... there are no electrolytic caps all the way back to the wall, even in the PSU! and, it requires no calibration ever! this will be the futureproof version of the 47 that will continue making after the NOS tube version becomes too hard to continue... We're not there yet, but I want to be ready for when that day comes. The new circuit is so rubust that I can make both a classic ' 2 position 47 or 48 with mechanical headbasket switch' rendition of the mic or I can make a fully variable version with a PSU-located rotary switch. This version, once shipping, will become our go-to circuit with the NOS tube versions being the more esoteric (and slightly pricier) versions. We will continue to do all of them for as long as we can.

That's all for now. I hope to see many folks at NAMM later this month and hope everyone has a wonderful 2026!

Chad