Quote:
Originally Posted by DeadPoet  Same old chinese reseller... The birdcage is the same as the oktava ribbon (at thomann.de €290, so a little more expensive) but the Big Mama is the same as the tBone SCT700 which sells for €159 at thomann...
(they even use the same pictures..)
Buyer beware
Herwig |
Hallo Herwig. Did you have any personal experience with the company?
I have a couple of Birdcages. They use the body of the Octava ML52 but the ribbon and transformer are different. I have asked for the internal grill to be removed, to open up the sound, and they did it at no extra cost. I don't know what other improvements they are making.
My other ribbons include Beyer M130, M160, M260.80, M500, Bang and Olufsen BM5 stereo (the father of the Royer SF12) and T.Bone RB100.
The Birdcage is phenomenal. It has a huge sound with balls the size of melons. Also a Lundahl would be awesome. Still it has an open sound. I don't have access to a R84 but sonically I guess it wouldn't be far.
I just show on their site that they are going to offer the "Birdcage Active".
I have also a MK319. They make it transformless with the Scott Dorsey mod (Toshiba FET). Switches are working. Again I don't know what other improvements they are making. This mic has an open sound, not harsh, but still has some character.
They use the anechoic chamber at Pearl Microphones to measure every single microphone and they supply that actual graph. They also offer a matching of pairs based on those actual, individual graphs. How many manufactures are offering that especially at these prices?
I am very impressed from all of those three mics.
But delivery over here was a mess. Still there is good communication. The first delivery of the Birdcage pair got lost, but they did recent another pair with the addition of the MK319 as a compensation (I had ordered another pair of 319s). How many manufactures are doing that?
Again the delivery of that MK319 pair got lost or something and we are in talks about sending them with a courier service this time.
Also every mic is coming with a spider mic holder that is like a Neumann copy. They are very impressive. I have at the studio pairs of M149 and TLM103 and the holders are almost identical.
As for the Big Mama I have ordered one. I don't think it has much to do with the SCT700. From the photos you can see the Big Mama PSU that offers continuous variable diagrams. The SCT700 is only cardioid. They told me that it is the same source and they do the same improvements as the Peluso 2247. Well, I don't have a Peluso to compare it to when it arrives, but a friend of mine has an original, mint, short body, prototype U47 (as Mr Gunter Wagner has concluded) which is the real deal.
I have ordered the Little Brother too, which they say is identical to the P12 and even better than Big Mama.
We will see.
P.S. I don't have any affiliation with this company.