http://www.adkmic.com/specs/Area51CE.html

Well, I just got a pair of these mics. Apparently, they are one of just a few matched pairs. As some of you know, I just record solo fingerstyle acoustic and classical guitar.

I let them warm up for 20 minutes or so and tried them throgh a Pendulum MDP-1a pre with a Tippin OMT (EIR/Alpine) as the source. The mics were setup in a 30" wide spaced pair, about 42" inches frm the guitar. Nice overall sound, very nice actually. There's a slight bump centered around 11k or 12k, and a few other "non-flat" things going on, but these mics are really smooth. Sexy smooth. Also fairly full in the lows and low mids, slightly loose, not super tight like some other mics I have.

The mics have 9 polar patterns. I ran through each and noticed expected changes in the sound. Surprisingly, the figure 8 pattern has much less proximity effect than cardioid or hypercardioid. Much less.

I also ran the mics through a John Hardy M-2, this time using a David Webber OM (qulited maple/cedar). Very nice too. A bit less euphonic (due to the pre change), somewhat more immediate.

I'll be comparing these mics to others I have over the next few weeks. I can already tell that this pair of ADK CEs will compliment the other mics I have.

An update of the pair of CE mics. I've tried 5 different pairs of tubes with the mics, just to see what would happen. It turns out that this mic, as well as the ADK TC and TT, can handle any tube in the 12A*7 family, which would include the ususal suspects - 12AX7, 12AT7, 12AU7 and the 12AY7 (that's the one that comes with the mic), plus the several varients of these (e.g., JJ EC803). Each of these tubes have different gain, so expect a gain change if using different ones. Also, different tubes in the same strain can impart different sonics, e.g., Telefunkens are generally clear and tight and Mullards often provide a midgrange fullness.

The stock NOS GE JAN 12AY7 (aka 6072A) that comes with the mic is part of a 1,000 tube batch that ADK has. These tubes in this mic create a rounded sound and are a bit noisy.

The capsule in these mics have a HF bump at 10k or so according to ADK. Also, they have a full bass, resulting in a slightly scooped midrange (in a relative sense).

Anyway, the tubes I like the most are some NOS GE 12AT7 triple mica. The 12AT7 has a mu of 60 and the original 12AY7 has a mu of 45, so the gain of the 12AT7 is somewhat higher. (A 12AX7 has a mu of 100).

With the 12AT7, the bass is tightened and the HF bump is more present, but still very smooth. The midrange is a bit more present. The tube noise is much less, and although I've only compared them to other mics I have noise-wise, I believe the mics are now at their self noise spec of 18dB A-weighted. That's not quiet, but it's not objectionable either.

I actually had real noise issues with GT 12AX7M's in mine...or any 12AX7, for that matter. I had to go back to the lower gain AY7...and I flip flop between the GT one and the NOS GE. The GE that I have is much brighter than the stock Chinese tube (which actually had an alarming amount of bottom end, and softened up the top in a rather nice way...I keep it around for bass stuff...) and has a very tight bottom end. Makes for a great F Vocal mic. The GT is a little smoother and more robust through the mids and is a little bigger on the bottom, though not much. Definitely not as corpulent as the stocker.