The AT8459 is a product that encourages you to say, “How did I ever live without it?” It’s a compact, double-socket arm with mic threads on the ball ends. After you screw on a mic...
"Smooth like whiskey" — that's how Vanguard Audio Lab's main man, Derek Bargaehr, describes the sound of the V13 large-diaphragm condenser mic. Vanguard, a small company based in Upland,...
When a piece of equipment comes along that challenges the norms of the day, I always take notice. "Normal" is an ever-shifting sandbar in the harbor of consensus, and it never holds still for long in...
My original plan was to write a typical Andy Hong review of the new Shure KSM8 mic, with measurements and thoughts from empirical testing accompanying my commentary of actual in-studio use. But soon...
At the 2016 AES Show in Los Angeles, I was shown a slew of great new gear. For me, the products I saw typically fell into a few different categories: (1) Cool product, but doesn't make sense for me;...
The buzz on this box was unlike any I have encountered, and it was a challenge to get a review unit from Chandler due to demand. But it was well worth the wait. Chandler and its main man Wade Goeke...
For many years, Bill Bradley (Tape Op #42) has built a reputation for expertly repairing microphones in the Nashville area. Over ten years ago, Bill branched into building his own mics, and the MS47...
A while back, Tape Op contacted me to review Roswell's follow-up to their Mini K47, the Delphos. I had heard good things about the Mini K47 [Tape Op #109], and knew Matt McGlynn to be the mind behind...
If you haven't already heard of the King Bee and Worker Bee mics from Neat Microphones, do me a favor, and watch one of the numerous "unboxing" videos uploaded to YouTube by customers of these mics....
I recently borrowed a demo set of the Lauten Audio Black Series microphones. I have been a big fan of the company's Signature Series mics and was excited to try the new Black Series LA320 tube mic. At...
The first time I heard the Soyuz SU-017, it was facing backwards. A singer was wailing away into the wrong side of its cardioid-only pattern, and it wasn't half bad. It actually sounded pretty focused...
The small-diaphragm condenser category is, like all mic types, a crowded one; and these days, finding something special or unique is probably not going to happen. What's interesting in this category...
