Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
I notice that the UK based
Oktava mics has six of the same models in its product line as
Oktava Tula: namely the MK012, MK219, MK319, ML52, MKL2500 and MKL5000. I also see from their eBay store that the new German based distributor doesn't ship to the UK.
So, can I take it from this that any Oktava mics sold in Britain are the work of the Chinese rather than the Russkies?
In a word, yes.
UK-based McKay brothers, the original solely-authorized distributors of Oktava mics, turned to a Chinese manufacturer to make nearly identical copies of the Russian mics in an attempt to get lower pricing demanded by their biggest customer - Guitar Center.
The physical differences between the Russian and Chinese MC-012s are now obvious as the posts above show. The MK-319 is a different story.
The Chinese version of the MK-319 is an exact physical copy of the Russian mic. Build quality is very consistant. It is impossible to tell one from the other by looking at the exterior. There are sonic differences though.
The Chinese version is missing that special lower midrange magic a good Oktava LDC produces. I haven't analyzed yet whether this is due to capsule tuning, transformer nonlinearities or a combination of both.
I would not lay the blame for the missing magic at the feet of the Chinese manufacturer. I'd say that honor goes to the McKay brothers who didn't know how or care enough to instruct their Chinese vendor to copy the original Russian sound exactly - something I think the factory is capable of doing given the consistency I've seen in MK-319 copies.
A safe bet in a large diaphragm Oktava is the MK-219. I have yet to spot a Chinese manufactured one. Oktava in Tula was cranking them out by the thousands through 2002 - the largest production run year. Or, if you can determine a 319 was Russian-made either by date of purchase, location of purchase or existance of a serialized Russian language manual that matches the mic you'll have a good mic.