quick update on SAE mic developments!

It's been a while so I thought I'd give an update on things that we are up to, things that will hopefully come out this year or next year, and some things that might go away at some point as well.

For starters, we believe we haver refined the board design for our M49 to the level where it is good to go into production. We are still awaiting the first sample of our mic body and yoke design, and hope that it will be close to the mark.. if not, there will be another round of prototyping before it goes into production. Considering the lead time for manufacturing, I'm not sure if this will be out by year's end but we still hope so. If not, it would be early next year perhaps. We are looking at doing the M49, possibly also a variable pattern version of the M49, and thirdly also a solid state, phantom powered version of the M49 based around a very expensive gold pin transistor that we happen to like a lot.

The tube M49 is going to have a few very cool easter eggs. One is that it will, for the first time ever, incorporate the 'true cardiod bypass' jumper (available on original units but requiring opening up the unit and cutting a jumper) available via relay and remote switch on the PSU. Inside the unit, there will be a few easter eggs, including 2 or 3 circuit mods rooted in the history of the M49 that will be available on internal jumpers. You will be able to mod and tweak your own M49 according to historical tweaks that have been done, ALL non-destructively and via internal jumpers and switches!

Believe it or not, even though it was not long ago we announced the EF800 version of our tube 47, we are working on 2 additional variations on the tube U47. We have worked with Phaedrus Audio out of the UK to put together a phantom powered 47 design based around a special version of their solid state 'supertube' technology. The Spirit47, as we call it, will be cosmetically exactly like our U47, with a 3 pin IP66 to XLR cable provided, and a cardioid only response, although a cardioid/omni mechanical switch headbasket can be provided for an additional cost.

We have prototyped this out and tested it with a number of our close clients for a few years now, and are very happy with it. Do we believe that this technology replaces or perfectly mimics a tube? No, not at all, actually. Do we believe it sounds like a U47 FET? Also, no, definitely not. We feel it actually splits the difference. It does not fully possess the girth and 3D quality of a real tube; although we did everything we could with the design and component choices and a new BV8 transformer design to get it as close as we could. It also does does not have the dry, overly one dimensional and 'simpler' sound profile of a U47 FET either... it does sound warmer, richer, softer, more complex. I feel it truly lives somewhere inbetween and I would dare say that whatever qualities it still lacks over a true tube design are outweighed by the convenience of having a one-piece system that travels easier and will never need maintenance or re-calibration. I think by the time you layer tracks, process, and mix a record, you'd be hard pressed to not know it was our tube 47. Side by side and live, yes, you can still tell. Actual tubes are in no danger of being replaced... yet... but this mic is certainly cool enough in its own right to deserve finally being brought out into the world. Plus, it will cost less.

Lastly, we are inching ever closer to finishing something we have been working on for probably 5 or 6 years, in little fits and starts. We would work on this for a bit, prototype, and then put it on the shelf because something else was pressing, then pick it back up a year later, etc. What this was, is basically the idea of what a U47 would be made of if it were designed and built today, with no allegiance to NOS components. We have been working for many years on a novel 12AT7 based design that utilizes no new-old-stock components at all, yet gives us the vintage sound we seek. I think we are finally close to getting there. We are not using any NOS capacitors or tubes in the design, although they can be installed if one wishes to... just not necessary for the sound. This, if successful, will finally liberate us from the very time-consuming and increasingly difficult task of screening, cleaning, testing, burning in, and cherry picking NOS tubes and PIO capacitors. This has just become harder and harder and more and more time consuming as the years have gone on. The WE 408a pentode pair used in our beloved dual-tube 47 is just becoming more expensive and more scarce by the day, with the yields getting increasingly worse as the best tubes continue to be snapped up off the market. Almost everything out there now is used, and has to be cleaned and sifted through to get the cream of the crop. I'm at the point now where it takes 20 to 24 tubes to get the perfect pair and perfect spare pair to ship with each mic, and the costs just continue to go up. It now takes an entire evening to go through that many tubes and put them through the 2 layers of pre-testing and then it takes another 48 hours to burn them in with their corresponding mic. I find myself now having to do that for the NOS PIO capacitors as well. I am not quite giving up yet on this, but I am definitely at the point now where I can see the writing on the wall. I think any sane person would have changed gears some time ago. LOL

I have invested in parts and materials to do as many as about 24 more of the dual-tube 47's/48's, as they require a custom wound toroidal power transformer, a special inductor, and a custom wound variant of the BV8. After that, that will be all she wrote for the beloved dual-tube. So, at the current rate of sales, it means those will be sunsetting by probably early next year. So, I mention this as a public service to anyone considering getting one. I also don't want to make it sound like this tube is 'unobtainium' and that the mic will be unsupportable... That's not the case at all. It is just reaching the point where it starts to use up so much time that it no longer makes business sense. I want to stop while I still have sufficient reserves to actually support them for the life of the product, and while people can still order spare tubes without it being too prohibitive.

The EF800 version of the tube 47/48 will probably continue to live on for quite some time, because those tubes are still readily available and (far more important) have an extremely low failure rate so you can buy them without the fear that most of them will be bad. The EF800 was always a hi-fi tube, and in my experience more than 3 out of 4 of at least the Telefunken branded ones are easily microphone grade. The other brands, perhaps less so. The 408a pentode, on the other hand, was always a telecommunications tube mostly used by AT&T, and there was a wide range in production quality for this tube between the 50's and 70's when it was manufactured. I only ever liked the Western Electric branded ones, and to pass as microphone grade, these tubes really have to score above the 'bell curve' of what is expected of them. I can still do it, but as I say, the writing is definitely on the wall at this point. It's a shame in some sense, because when done right, I still feel this version is the best 47 you can make. That being said, however, its also 'lazy engineering' on my part to act as if this is an unsolveable dilemma. It is incumbent on me to get modern tubes and modern ingredients to do what I need them to do, rather than to pretend that the holy grails of sound are somehow locked in the past. That's the task before us, and I feel like we are finally gettting close.

The modern tube 47 will also hopefully be the most high-fidelity version we've ever done. We've done some truly bonkers things, like using all film caps even all the way down to the power supply.. no need for 'bypassing' and not just saying 'no electrolytics in the audio path'. How about, no electrolytics at all! Because, believe it or not, the power supply matters and you DO hear it. We borrowed this and a few other ideas from the world of extreme hi-fi, which I do follow... and sometimes get ideas of things I can incorporate into our work but at down-to-earth prices. If I'm right, (crossing fingers), this mic will give me the vintage vibe I want but with the fidelity and focus of modern design, and no one will miss the tube 47 with vintage parts. At least, that's my promise and my challenge to myself, and if I can't deliver then I will keep making the vintage-parts-version for as long as I work. haha

So anyway, that's a bit of what we've been up to on the SAE front, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!