Great looking "fat head" microphone
Ex our post production facilities - a "fun mic" for experimentation
Originally marketed to the consumer, semi pro perhaps but worth a play around with
Yes, this is BRANDED Realistic but actually OEM product from Sony, this is in reality the Sony ECM-99 re-badged
REALISTIC STEREO MICROPHONE (Sony ECM-99)
Model: 33-919A
Early 1970's - it can be found in the Realistic catalogues of 1974
Photograph with polar diagram is pulled from a Sony ECM series catalogue of the 1970's
Technical Specifications:
Element type: electret or "back-condensor"
Not to be confused with the more commonly (and expensive) "normal condenser" micrphones which require a phantom power source.
If you aren't familiar with the two types of condenser, have a look at this link:
To quote from the webpage:
"A good back-electret mic can perform every bit as well as a traditional capacitor design, and in some cases a little better, though the electrical charge sealed in the electret material can leak away very slowly over a period of several decades, resulting in a slight decrease in sensitivity. In reality, though, this leakage is generally so small as not to be a practical issue."
Pattern: Switchable Omni-directional & "Wide"
Frequency response: 80 - 17Khz
Impedance: 600 Ohm
Sensitivity: low
Barrel switch: ON-NORMAL-WIDE
Strong aluminium body, lightweight - finish is brushed aluminium
Metal head grill
Output is via a fixed lead, two audio channels (left-right) unbalanced.
The lead is 3 metres in length, to 2x standard 1/4" mono plugs
Microphone weight is just 200g
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Excellent. body and head are unmarked and very clean
Cable is original and undamaged. No manufacturing ID on the cable sheath.
Jack plugs are nothing special, moulded plastic - undamaged.
TESTING:
Powers up fine - uses a standard AA size battery, Alkaline or Lithium will be fine.
The audio quality is pretty good, especially when switched to "WIDE" - this is when the side lobes come alive and the bass response seems to be much better.
The frequency response specs look not too bad, a bit peaky above 8Khz but its the signal to noise ratio that the user needs to be careful of.
Both channel outputs working and are of the same audio level
SPECIAL NOTE: The output levels are (in my opinion) quite low, I had to apply a fair bit of gain through the desk to get a decent output from this microphone. This will mean that special attention must be made to reducing noise to an absolute minimum.
If we had decided to mess around with this microphone, it could be worth looking at substituting the FET transistor and upgrading the connecting cable to achieve the lowest possible noise figure.
This microphone is probably a little less sensitive than when new, the permanent charge introduced at manufacture does tend to leak away although only by very small amounts usually.
Another option is to keep the body (it is rather cool looking) and replace the elements with something more contemporary.
I am supply the microphone exactly as in the photograph EXCEPT there will be NO battery supplied. It is likely this will be shipped and the Postal service is "touchy" about items with batteries inside.
The original box is long gone and the original desk stand was also thrown away.
