Recording - December 2013 - 38

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

The IFET condenser microphone is the
latest from David Bock and his company
Bock Audio. Not completely a brand-new
creation, it is actually an update/rerelease of the IFET7 which was introduced around 2003 under the Soundelux
brand. David co-founded Soundelux's
microphone division, and while he parted ways with them in 2006, luckily for us
he retained the rights to his microphone
designs, which he now builds under the
Bock Audio name.
Our first look at Bock Audio was when I
reviewed the Bock 195 microphone in our
February 2011 issue. At $1250 street, the
195 is the entry-level model of the line and
is a modern take on a classic FET style mic,
but with a twist. The 195 offers built-in tone
shaping by way of a Fat/Norm switch that
engages a gentle sloping low-end boost
from 500 Hz up to 100 Hz; couple that
with a 20 Hz low cut and a 10 dB pad,
and as I mentioned in that review it was
like having two mics in one.
While this paradigm of expanding the
tonal palette of a mic by electronic means
has grown in popularity over the past few
years, the new Bock IFET takes this idea a
step further, without resorting to filters of any
kind. Essentially the IFET is two microphones
in one body; it employs two completely

The microphone measures 61/2" x 2
/8" in diameter, with a 43/8" attached
mounting arm that hints at the microphone's inspiration-the most classic FET
mic of them all, the Neumann U47fet.
The IFET captures its look and feel well,
dressed in a classic silver brushed aluminum finish with a black enamel Bock
badge.
The IFET has no pad or bass cut, only a
single recessed silver toggle switch on its
front with the letters I and V etched on its
side. I stands for Instrument, and this setting engages the microphone's classic
FET amplifier circuit. It is a high-SPL ClassA discrete circuit with one FET and four
transistors. While designed to capture the
vibe of an old classic FET microphone,
David's design features improved clarity
in the highs and a more solid low end
than was possible in models of yesteryear. The V side stands for Vocals, and its
amplifier is a Class-A variant of the singletransistor design found in Neumann's
KM84. Both amplifiers make use of a
large custom-wound transformer of
David's design.
The capsule of the microphone is a 25
mm (1-inch), single-backplate K47 type cardioid capsule with a 15 Hz to 18 kHz frequency response, and 135 dB max SPL.
3

Bock Audio IFET Condenser Microphone
A classic-inspired FET design with some powerful tricks up its sleeve
different amplifier circuits married to the same
capsule and output transformer! Intrigued? I
sure was, and here's what I found out.
Inside and out
While the premise, and much of the internals and build, remain similar to the older
Soundelux IFET7, there have of course been
some significant changes and improvements in the past decade. First the IFET7's
heavy brass base has been replaced by aluminum. This makes the mic much lighter and
better-balanced, improving the microphone's attached mounting arm's ability to
hold position. And speaking of the mounting arm, it has also been redesigned.
Sonically the microphone's voicing has
been adjusted for better high- and low-end
response as compared to the IFET7.
38

RECORDING December 2013

The I side of the mic, like the classic
U47fet, is fairly flat in the lows and mids,
with some minor presence peaks around the
5 kHz and 9 kHz areas with a nice dip in
between. It's also nicely rolled off in the highs
beyond 10 kHz or so, and exhibits a classic
tone that will easily seem full and warm compared to most of today's ultra-bright modern
mics... which tend to peak pretty high in the
8 to 12 kHz range or even beyond!
The V side of the mic has a fuller low end,
a gently less pronounced mid section, and
an even more tamed high end. Also note
that this circuit is 4 dB hotter than the I side.
I try the I
I put the IFET to use on room duties,
acoustic guitar, mono drum overhead (alas,
I only had one), front of kit, front of kick

drum, floor tom, cajon, shaker, tambourine,
the speaker cabinet of a Rhodes piano,
electric guitar amps, bass amp, and, of
course, male and female vocals. In fact,
with the exception of a Neumann KM84 as
a secondary acoustic guitar microphone, I
have been using the Bock IFET on pretty
much every source I've tracked so far for a
client's upcoming Christmas EP!
If I had to use one word to describe this
mic it would be: classic. It really does
capture a nice classic vintage tone, end
of story!
The Instrument setting is full and solid,
but not peaky or forceful. It never tries too
hard to impose a sound of its own. It's well
suited to drums, although rather than as
an overhead, I liked it more in front of the
kit, where it solidifies the drum mix and
Recording - December 2013

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