"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:04:05 +0100, "Keith G"
wrote:


I've had some very good advice here on mics and (usual for me) ignored it
a
wee bit....!!!

:-)

I have been assured by someone who sells them (??) that Oktava are the
'best
by far' cheap mics and have thus ordered an MK319 (the 219s being out of
stock in the UK atm and deliveries from Russia are a bit iffy,
apparently) -
anybody able to back that up from experience??

(Or shoot it down in flames...?? :-)




No ack ack from here. That will do fine. A few years ago they had some
quality control problems, and about half of them got returned, but
they have sorted all that out now.



Hopefully! :-)

That's the way with Russian kit - for some reason they get away with iffy QC
and (sometimes) a loyal following for genuinely crappy stuff! Have you seen
the wacky 'Lomography' following on the Net?

http://www.lomo.com/

???


You are buying two, aren't you? And how about power - have you got
that mixer yet?


Aww, feck....

No, it gets worse - I'm definitely going the mono route for the moment while
I get it all sorted out. I can *stereo* it up in the future (when funds
allow), especially as I will also investigate the 219 if the 319 is up to
snuff, as matey at KMR said the 219 was *particularly* suited to piano!
(???)

Totally unprompted, while we were talking, he mentioned this little preamp:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

as being worth having at about a hundred quid or so, in a 'valve pre if no
valve mic, but not both' kinda way. I told him they were on eBay for about
half that right now, he said it would be a bargain, so I grabbed one for 55
quid while I was on the phone to him!!

If anyone else is interested, note that there are 8 more available and the
same thing can be had for twice the money, if it helps with your POQ:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

:-)

Basically, I want to bang this all together to make direct comparisons with
Nick's Behringer mic and *fine* little homebrew pre, while I still have them
here - nothing is ruled out for the future!!

This one *is* in stock:

http://www.kmraudio.com/catalogue/pr...roducts_id/782

....there wuz a time when I'da said 'sod it' and grabbed that as well!! :-)

(As the KMR blokey said - 'it's a lifestyle decision'....!! :-)

Especially as I've been running my SS vinyl rig this morning and confirming
*again* the difference between SS and valve main amplification, if nothing
else, is greater than *profound*....!!

(Better start knocking up a 'microphone cupboard'...!! ;-)