Mojave Audio MA-201 fet

[Tommylicious]

A fet version of their tube mic, soon in a studio near you?

[LaLaFaV]

It looks nice. At $695, it's a pretty good deal. If I didn't already have the MA-200, I'd probably get one or maybe a pair for stereo mic'ing.

[Tomer1]

Wasnt the original unmodified chinies model a FET condenser and the whole point of the MA100 was to use the original capsule and body around a new miniature tube cuircuit with a decent powersupply?

[mltamisin]

Nice, heard it yet?

[Duardo]

Wasnt the original unmodified chinies model a FET condenser and the whole point of the MA100 was to use the original capsule and body around a new miniature tube cuircuit with a decent powersupply?

No quite...before the MA200 was released Mojave sold mod kits for inexpensive Chinese microphones, but the Mojave-branded microphones are original designs (as I understand it at least).

[peeder]

Yeah, you do know that Dave Royer (of Royer ribbons fame) is the guy designing stuff for Mojave...in fact the first Royer ribbons said Mojave Audio on them.

Very happy with my MA-200.

[Ken Schumacher]

Hi all,

My first post on this forum.

I got to use a pair of prototype MA-201 mics, on loan from David Royer himself, last night at a classical piano recital. Ran them through a pair of Seventh Circle Audio C84 mic pres directly to a Masterlink. I also set up a pair of Movave kit tube mics (modified MXL-2001) running through SCA N72 mic pres. All the tracks sound great. I'll be sending CDs of the recordings to David, because he loves classical piano and may be able to use the tracks for comparison purposes.

I met David Royer 15 years ago, when he was building mics in his Fullerton California garage.

Ken Schumacher
Welcome to Live Vibes Recording

[roger]

welcome to gearshmucks ken! haha!

how would you describe the top-end of the 201's?....a bit sizzly?

rog

[Ken Schumacher]

I've only briefly listened to the tracks on headphones. If I had to characterize them, I'd say the FET through the C84 was "pristine", while the Tube through N72 was "fat and gooey". But I knew what gear was used on which tracks, so this could be my own pre-conceived bias. I didn't hear anything I didn't like. Nothing "sizzly" to my ears.

Ken

[Meriphew]

They have a good track record so far. I'm betting it will be a cool mic.

[arimaka]

I have used the Mojave mics and love the sound and the price.
Just with they would offer one with multiple patterns for M-S recording, OMNI pair, etc

Manuel

[Dusty Wakeman]

Originally Posted by Tomer1

Wasnt the original unmodified chinies model a FET condenser and the whole point of the MA100 was to use the original capsule and body around a new miniature tube cuircuit with a decent powersupply?

The point of the original kits, which led to the MA-200, was to replace bad electronics with good electronics. The new MA-201fet uses hi-quality (i.e. expensive), U.S.-made components: FET, resistors, transformer, to achieve this, in a way that is less expensive than a tube circuit.

[Jus]

So, compared to MA-200, does it lose much warmth? Have you had a change to make any testing, or what would you pros expect?

MA-200 is perfect for my voice, but currently it is too expensive for me (amateur, home studio), so I might go for MA-201.

[patysteve]

Hi everybody. first post I'm looking for a second mic today just to record guitars. I guess if the 201 sounds just like a ma-200 fet version. I sold my Ma-200 a few month ago. It was really harsh in the high mids on vocals. Now I'm really happy with my lawson L 47 mk II.
However the ma-200 really shined on acoustic guitars... Beautifull lows and clear sound. And in front of my Engl guitar amp it was just amazing. I don't want to put the lawson in front of a guitar amp! As the ma-201 fet is cheaper i hope we'll soon have more informations about how it sounds. (and maybe how it compares to an Akg 214?)

[peeder]

Just a note...

Not all microphones need to work for vocals.

I know it's very hard to release a microphone that doesn't work for vocals, because most idjits just test a mic by talking into it (often obliviously out of phase with their headphones) and decide whether it's good or cwap on that alone.

Bliss is a well-stocked mic locker, with strong variety!

[patysteve]

Originally Posted by peeder

Just a note...

Not all microphones need to work for vocals.

I know it's very hard to release a microphone that doesn't work for vocals, because most idjits just test a mic by talking into it (often obliviously out of phase with their headphones) and decide whether it's good or cwap on that alone.

Bliss is a well-stocked mic locker, with strong variety!

You're right. The Ma-200 worked very well on female vocals with just a little de-ess... (tested with Amek 9098 DMA and UA solo 110) but was too agressive for some rock singers. It was just wonderfull on instruments. That's why i'd like to know how it compares to the new fet version. What I prefer with the mojave is that it sounds really fat on electric guitars and sweet with my folk one.

[peeder]

I tried the MA-201 directly vs. the MA-200 on the floor. Miserably, they only had K240's to listen on...my least favorite can. But since I have used the MA-200 since release I knew via comparison.

The MA-201 may be even better than the 200! It's super super fast and clean, lacking the tube warmth of the 200. Yet it is really very impressive indeed! It's not so terribly bright either, even though you'd expect the FET circuit to usually be brighter than its tube variant. I think they got the message with the brilliance turning some people off the 200 (but it doesn't turn me off).

Outstanding value microphone. This and Studio Projects CS-5 are the mics I'm going to recommend trying in the under $1000 bracket I think.

[mwagener]

I found the 201 to be very similar to the 200 but with a bit more midrange punch, which sits nicely with electric guitars.

[BLUElightCory]

I used one a couple of days ago on electric guitars as part of a comparison test for a class I teach, and the mic was very impressive indeed. I really like the sound of the mids and highs in this mic; it's very flattering on guitars and I look forward to exploring it further.

[andychamp]

Strangely, on the MA website, the frequency response graphs for both mics (200 & 201) look identical

[bforest4]

would this be a good cheap alternative to a fet 47 on kick drum?