Recording - September 2015 - 32

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

Roswell Pro Audio is a brand-new microphone company whose plan is to offer a full
range of high-quality microphone designs.
Some of these will be made overseas, while
others will use the increasingly common
hybrid approach favored by many boutique
companies, with globally sourced parts and
USA construction and quality control.
Kicking off the line is the Mini K47
microphone, which is an entry level mic
manufactured in China. Before you groan
and stop reading, thinking, "Oh, great,
another Asian import mic!", there are a
few important things to know about the origins and design of this mic, and why its
country of origin is largely irrelevant.
Parts and pedigree
One of the growing mic construction
trends in the past 5 to 10 years, expanding
in popularity alongside the boutique-hybrid
mic approach described above, is the
practice of microphone modding: purchasing a low-cost Asian import mic and then
systematically replacing various components
with higher-grade custom parts. This essentially

There's Mini and there's K47
The Mini K47 gets its name from its compact size and its
use of a K47-style capsule. If you are a Mic-Parts fan already,
you'll know what I mean when I explain that this capsule is the
RK-47. For the rest of you, that's a full-size replica of the original K47 capsule used in the classic Neumann U 47 fet. It's a
true single-backplate 34mm capsule with a 3-micron centerterminated gold-sputtered Mylar diaphragm.
I make mention of it being full-size because whether or not
folks know it, most of the Chinese-made K67-style capsules are
smaller than the original version manufactured and used by
Neumann. Not so with the the RK-47, which is a painstaking
recreation of the original K47 design. The RK-47 is the primary reason why swapping this capsule into most budget mics
makes such a huge sonic difference.
Beyond the basics
However, this little mic is not meant to be a U 47 fet clone.
Its goal is to offer the most transparent signal path possible and
let the sound of the capsule do the heavy lifting.
The mic itself measures 5.91" with a diameter of 1.73". Its
body is made of thick brass tubing dressed in black with a
triple-mesh grille in a brushed nickel finish.
It features a linear transformerless circuit based on a design
by Schoeps (known for ultra-clean and transparent mics). Inside
the mic is a simple, well-laid-out circuit board filled with high grade

Roswell Pro Audio Mini K47
A new name in the mic business debuts a remarkably affordable vintage-style mic
creates a hot-rodded variant that corrects for many
of the budget mic's shortcomings and allows it to
hold its own against more expensive models.
One of the companies that has been at the forefront of this customization trend for the past 5 years
is Microphone-Parts (microphone-parts.com). At
their website you can purchase capsules, circuit
upgrades, and even complete DIY microphone kits.
Roswell Pro Audio is an offshoot of MicrophoneParts, and the Mini K47 is essentially a fully modded import mic. It's just one that you can get without breaking out a soldering iron or hunting for the
right parts!
In the "But wait, there's more" category, this mic
also comes with an additional touch of pedigree, as
the person behind Roswell Pro Audio and
Microphone-Parts is none other than Matthew
McGlynn. Matt is the man behind the successful website Recording Hacks (recordinghacks.com), the
world's largest database of microphones past and
present, complete with reviews, specs, graphs,
charts, comparisons, articles and more. I use
Recording Hacks often as an online microphone reference library. This means that the guy behind
Roswell Pro Audio knows microphones... and knows
what he likes and wants out of a mic.
32

RECORDING September 2015

parts such as German-made Wima film capacitors, an upgraded polystyrene
input capacitor, and a K30A low-capacitance JFET. This is vital, as according to Matt McGlynn, most inexpensive transformerless microphones use a
high-capacitance JFET that limits performance. By choosing the K30A type
JFET for the Mini K47, Roswell Pro Audio is able to factory-bias the mic for
higher sensitivity.
Each mic ships with a simple zipper pouch and a hard swivel mic mount,
although a shock mount is available from Roswell's site or from that of distributor Front End Audio for $29.95.
The Mini K47 is a cardioid mic with the following specs:
Frequency Range:
20 Hz-16 kHz
Sensitivity:
18 mV/Pa
Impedance:
114 Ohms
Signal-to-noise:
81 dBA
Equivalent noise:
13 dBA
Its frequency graph shows it to be relatively flat across the lows and low mids
with only the slightest of 0.5 dB dips between 40 and 120 Hz. Around 1 kHz
it starts to rise about 2 dB, and it stays there until it rolls off gently at 8 kHz.
Mini mic, BIG sound
As its frequency graph suggests, this is a very well-balanced mic that is
devoid of any of the 8 dB and higher 10 to 12 kHz frequency spikes often
found in budget condenser mics. You know, the shrillness and ping that we
think of as the "modern condenser sound"?

http://www.microphone-parts.com http://www.recordinghacks.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2015