Fake Oktava MK-319 pics

[Recycled_Brains]

has anyone purchased oktava's from here:

http://www.oktavausa.com/

... it says "we carry only genuine russian made oktava microphones."

i was thinking about getting the matched pair of MK-012's from there. just wondering if anyone has purchased from here and gotten the 'real deal' or the chinese version.

seems pretty legite, but who knows.

Yes, I've known people to get mics from them and they are very good with thier own quality control. You can be sure that what ever mics you get from them are Russian and the cream of the crop. But they are expensive....

Also, for those that have the mics, either Chinese or Russian, oktavamod.com is a great resource. That guy modded a couple of 219's of a friend of mine and they went from being $75 mics to $750 mics over night. Very highly recommended. (and no, I don't work for either company)

WOoOoOoPS!!!! I thought you listed oktava.com.... The Sound Room. That's the site I know of and comes highly recommended. I don't know oktavausa.com. Sorry for the mixup.

the matched pair of mk-012's (single capsule) are cheaper on there than the sight i listed... thanks.

[joelpatterson]

I think I've trumped everyone. I have a 319 that I got from the "odds and ends" cabinet of Daddy's Junky Music in the summer of '00. My heart sank when I ran across that expose of the fake ones, because it sure looks like a fat, blurry logo to me.

We gonna take it apart and see.

[MichaelJoly]

michael, do you just upgrade the parts in the 219 or do you fudge with the circuit?

Always happy to answer a question from the Mission, I'm an ex-Haight man and white cat lover who used to play at the Fab Mab myself.

The total transformation of the MK-219 into an object of glory is really the sum of all the mods - acoustical / mechanical and electronic. To date, I've kept the circuit topology stock, but upgraded parts and tweaked values. But I do have some circuit change ideas.

For many applications, the LF cut and attenuation switches are never used. These are actually high quality magnetic reed switches hermeticaly sealed from the air to avoid contact corrosion. I've been thinking about permanently disconnecting them as LF and Attenuation and instead using them to to do more, interesting things.

FET impedance converters in condenser mics are second cousins to tube circuits - there are a number of different operating points they can be run at depending if you're after maximum output, lowest distortion, lowest noise or maximum headroom.

Soon, I'll be experimenting with a mod that takes those LF cut and atttenuation switches and turns them into FET bias and gain switches. I'll select several good-sounding bias and gain possibilities but let the end user make the final decision on what sounds best for any particular application by flipping those switches into one of four states. This would subjectivley mean the mic could be "fat" and harmonically rich or "lean", pure and a bit quieter.

So this would actually be a circuit topology change. In another development...

Since this is the happy yellow board with great attitutde peeps who like unique stuff, I'll share a recent discovery that will be making its way into my mods.

I've done a lot of R&D work to find the best sounding capsule-to-FET coupling cap (among other parts) but it just occured to me that I could change the physical location of that cap and shorten the signal path from the capsule to FET. This reduces HF transient detail loss due to stray capacitance. My upcoming standard MK-219 mods will incorporate this absolute minimum signal path length upgrade. So, I'd call that a circuit layout change.

What is amazing to me, is after years of working on these things I can still discover tweaks. I discovered that particular little capacitor trick because I had several long emails with the owner of that mic and got to know him a bit. This inspired me to focus and do an exemplary job. I mean, I always try and to do the best job I can every time, but there is something about personal contact that is inspiring - even in the world of circuit mods. It was like a ruminative state I was in, just looking at the mic, at the circuit board, at the schematic, then...aha!

I think the 219 still has secrets I havn't unearthed yet.

[joelpatterson]

...(theme music interlude)...

Well, I'm back. I've got a supposedly authentic one, silver caps. Sigh of relief.

I do see what horseshit the streaming strands of wire to and from the low cut and pad switches must cause, and I agree these switches are never used. Is it as simple a matter as just soldering the ends of wires to where they should go? Bypassing the switches?

[MichaelJoly]

I have a 319 that I got from the "odds and ends" cabinet of Daddy's Junky Music in the summer of '00. My heart sank when I ran across that expose of the fake ones, because it sure looks like a fat, blurry logo to me.

No way could a 2000 MK-319 be a Chinese mic. The info-trail points to sometime in 2003 as the date of the Chinese production run. I may have to rethink the "fat" logo theory. I suppose its entirely possible that as the production run went on of the Russian mics, the screening or etching would become dulled. Just like when an artist pulls a print. The early numbers in the edition are valued for the sharpness of detail in them.

Unfortunately, the only people who could settle this are the McKay brothers and I'd be surprised if we heard from them.

I keep saying that Chinese copies are really consistent and not bad sounding mics. The lower midrange voicing is just different, not as defined. And, there is the difference in sound between the 219 and 319 due to the different headbasket and grille. The 219 has more of that lower midrange mojo while the 319 is actually a flatter sounding mic.

[joelpatterson]

Before long... the Chinese will be the hip ones to have!

So this bypassing the wires... something I could handle, you think?

[MichaelJoly]

Before long... the Chinese will be the hip ones to have!

oh, for sure. This China-mic bashing will pass and people will be buying up early MXLs with the 32mm capsule and transformer output because of the "Aphex-like" HF etching they produce. And regarding Russian vs. Chinese Oktavas - both camps will tout theirs as being best for certain applications.

re: Horseshit removal. Ever work in a stable? I think you could clean that mess up in your 319. Just make sure the center conductor of the capsule goes to directly to ground and the signal output conductor at the bottom of the capsule goes directly to the coupling cap (the other side of which goes to the FET gate).

[joelpatterson]

It sounds like simplicity itself, but it does look like a tangle of wires... is there a diagram that would show me?

I love the sensation when you're cleaning out a stable and you get down finally to the concrete floor, and you scrape it off. Something reassuring and heartwarming about a chocolately brown-stained stable floor.

[MichaelJoly]

ok, the final word on this little barnyard project. There's no diagrams that will help you. Take the mic apart, cut all the little wires off the daughter board with the switches. All you want left is the two wires from the capsule. Connect them as I said above.

[joelpatterson]

Gotcha... the center conductor goes to the ground of my choice, which is also essentially the body of the mic... and the bottom conductor goes to the coupling cap. A cap is a silver cylindrical trashcan-style metalical thing. The coupling cap is... of course... what?

[MichaelJoly]

Joel, you're making me think I should be in the cookbook business

anyway, the coupling cap is a little brownish-yellow ceramic cap (sometimes blue-dipped) soldered to stand-offs at the capsule end of the PC board.

The material type and manufacturer of this one cap has a dramatic effect on the sound of the mic. After all, the entire low-level AC signal from the capsule has to pass through this cap on its way to the FET impedance converter and be subject to all the bad things capacitors do to electrons.

And fortified with that last info morsel you're now ready to leave the garden of overt knowledge and enter the dark forest of research and discovery, alone.

[overnight]

has anyone purchased oktava's from here:

http://www.oktavausa.com/

... it says "we carry only genuine russian made oktava microphones."

i was thinking about getting the matched pair of MK-012's from there. just wondering if anyone has purchased from here and gotten the 'real deal' or the chinese version.

seems pretty legite, but who knows.

Yes, I've known people to get mics from them and they are very good with thier own quality control. You can be sure that what ever mics you get from them are Russian and the cream of the crop. But they are expensive....

Also, for those that have the mics, either Chinese or Russian, oktavamod.com is a great resource. That guy modded a couple of 219's of a friend of mine and they went from being $75 mics to $750 mics over night. Very highly recommended. (and no, I don't work for either company)

lol, and then I realize the guy from Oktavamod.com is the thread starter... I'm a genius.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Yeah, just another lousy ad disguised as a quest for information.

I got my two Oktavas at GC in fall 2002 and they both appear to be genuine Russian. MC012 and 319. I never put them away because I like them so much that I use them almost every time I record.

[A-Barr]

Yeah, just another lousy ad disguised as a quest for information.

Considering that the originator ended up basically giving away instructions to some of the mods that make his living, apparently just out of his own good nature, I'd have to disagree,

[mingus2112]

Yeah, just another lousy ad disguised as a quest for information.

I got my two Oktavas at GC in fall 2002 and they both appear to be genuine Russian. MC012 and 319. I never put them away because I like them so much that I use them almost every time I record.

Hope that was sarcastic. Mike started the thread hoping to shed light on picking out chinese vs russian mics. At the same time, though, i'll give another bump for his site! I'm getting mine done next month!

-James