Originally Posted by
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.