Aurycle DIY Tube mic kit.

[Simon Barden]

If you look on the main products page you'll notice that the PSU can be set for 150V or 230V operation. The CE marking should also have been a giveaway as they wouldn't have CE marked it for a product that couldn't be used in Europe.

Be careful when messing with valve mic circuits. They are never going to be as quiet as a FET driven mic, so you want to minimise the circuit noise. Also, one reason that people want a valve mic is for the harmonic distortion you get when they are driven hard (but you don't want too much distortion, just a slight colouring). It's not a valve guitar amp, there's no gain control on it and the higher the circuit gain, the more noise it's likely to pick up. You only need enough gain to get the output similar to a FET mic. You'll be better off noise-wise in using a bit more gain on your nice quiet mic preamp than adding a lot more from a valve at the mic end.

If you want a quiet valve mic, then go for a FET model.

Grounding everything can be an issue with these kit mics. The capsule enclosure needs to be well grounded otherwise the capsule can pick up a lot of noise. I've seen several kit mic builds on Sound On Sound where the makers have struggled to get a good ground for the grille assembly and get a huge amount of noise as a result.

Like Marcel, I'd be tempted to spend the extra money and go for the multi-pattern version. Far more versatile.

Two features missing from the mic that would make it even more useful are 1) a pad switch and 2) a high pass filter switch.

[DrNomis_44]

If you look on the main products page you'll notice that the PSU can be set for 150V or 230V operation. The CE marking should also have been a giveaway as they wouldn't have CE marked it for a product that couldn't be used in Europe.

Be careful when messing with valve mic circuits. They are never going to be as quiet as a FET driven mic, so you want to minimise the circuit noise. Also, one reason that people want a valve mic is for the harmonic distortion you get when they are driven hard (but you don't want too much distortion, just a slight colouring). It's not a valve guitar amp, there's no gain control on it and the higher the circuit gain, the more noise it's likely to pick up. You only need enough gain to get the output similar to a FET mic. You'll be better off noise-wise in using a bit more gain on your nice quiet mic preamp than adding a lot more from a valve at the mic end.

If you want a quiet valve mic, then go for a FET model.

Grounding everything can be an issue with these kit mics. The capsule enclosure needs to be well grounded otherwise the capsule can pick up a lot of noise. I've seen several kit mic builds on Sound On Sound where the makers have struggled to get a good ground for the grille assembly and get a huge amount of noise as a result.

Like Marcel, I'd be tempted to spend the extra money and go for the multi-pattern version. Far more versatile.

Two features missing from the mic that would make it even more useful are 1) a pad switch and 2) a high pass filter switch.

Ah okay, I thought that the power supply was only 120V AC, so then if it can be set to 230V AC then all I'd need to do is replace the existing mains plug with an Australian 3-pin 240V AC type, I know where I can buy them from, I guess I could spend some extra money and get the multi-pattern version, I'll have to wait till I see what next fortnight's budget is, I have a feeling I might have a bill from my ISP soon, I recently paid my last power/water bill so I won't get another one for another two months or so, if everything goes well with regards to building the kit up into a working mic, I may order another one so I'll have two that I can use, my Focusrite Saffire Pro40 audio interface has eight mic/line inputs, two of them have pad switches included so no pad switch on the mic itself isn't really an issue for me, although I agree, a high-pass switch would have been a useful extra feature, I'm seriously considering buying a small multi-channel mixing desk for my studio room later on this year, most modern desks do include high-pass filters on the channel strips, at least the ones I've had a look at anyway.


I do understand that these tube mic kits aren't going to be anywhere as good, or high-endy as say a Neumann U47, which are hideously expensive, especially if it's a vintage one.


As a side-note, yesterday I did some work on a 60's Electrovoice EV-676 dynamic mic for a mate of mine, it's the one that Jim Morrison from The Doors used onstage, anyway, my mate wanted me to mod it so that he could plug it into an XLR socket on his PA mixer, the mod I did to it worked perfectly first time and my mate is really happy with it, here's what the mic looked like: