I’ve always been a fan of Ear Trumpet Mics. They have a very cool look and although I haven’t personally used one, the reviews are coming in pretty positive. I really like the swivel type head basket and dual cardioid capsule design they’re using on this one. If you’re looking for a unique looking mic with great components, look no further.
April 3, 2014—Ear Trumpet Labs, a privately owned company in Portland OR that makes handcrafted microphones, today announced the release of Mabel, a new microphone designed specifically for studio work. Mabel is a hand-built multi-pattern condenser microphone utilizing two cardioid medium-large diaphragm (26mm) capsules, designed primarily for capturing demanding sources like acoustic instruments, drum overheads, and vocals. Mabel features a unique copper-ringed head basket with brass grill work, held in a pivoting mount within a stainless-steel yoke, and a copper-and-brass body. The design is both visually stunning and extremely practical, as the pivoting head makes for easy positioning adjustments.
The capsules are a pair of fixed-cardioid electret condensers, individually tested and selected to match each other and strict design criteria. The circuit is a transformerless FET with fully balanced output, incorporating thorough EMI protection. Other electrical components in the signal path are of the highest quality: metal film resistors, polypropylene and polystyrene capacitors, and individually tested, hand-matched and biased transistors and JFETs. Internal Sorbothane shock and vibration damping helps to minimize vibration noise. The dual-cardioid-capsule design is an uncommon approach to a multi-pattern mic. It has advantages in an especially deep null at the sides of the figure 8 pattern and greater control over the directional frequency response across all the patterns. The circuit includes high frequency EQ tuned to the capsules, providing a very smooth high end.
Sensitivity: 25 mv/Pa (cardioid)
Output Impedance: 150 ohms
The Mabel is now available for $1000 directly from Ear Trumpet Labs.
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