Recording - October 2016 - 44

BY GEORGE PETERSEN

Vanguard Audio Labs V13 Tube Microphone
A great multipattern offering from a new name in microphones
If I were to form a new pro
audio company, I'm pretty sure
I'd avoid creating studio microphones. There are lots of great
tube and solid-state condenser
microphones on the market, and
the competition is fierce.
However, I should come clean
and admit that I am a selfconfessed mic junkie; I live by
the mantra that "you can never
have too many microphones."
So when I first saw the V13
from Vanguard Audio Labs-a
new company run by a couple
of well-known pro audio veterans, dedicated to offering high
quality products (the first of
which is the V13) at down-toEarth prices that mere mortals
can afford-I was intrigued.
Outwardly, the V13 immediately sets itself apart from the pack,
with a large capsule clearly visible under the open-weave, nickelplated grille and wine-red body
and matching power supply. The
$699 package includes the V13
itself, external 120/240V power
supply with "chickenhead" pattern selector knob, shockmount,
and multipin connection cable, all
packed in a custom foam-lined flight case.
Vanguard takes the package a few steps further, adding a wooden box housing the mic
body for additional protection, an insert in
the case foam to accommodate spare (or
alternate) tubes, and the matching woven
cloth exterior on the power supply cable.
See photo 1.
The basics
The V13 is a large-diaphragm condenser
mic with a dual capsule design whose nine
switchable patterns, omni through cardioid
to figure-8, go beyond the usual selection of
two or three choices. The mic body itself has
switches for a 10 dB pad, which raises the
mic's maximum SPL handling from 134 dB
to a ready-for-anything 144 dB, and a highpass filter with a gentle 6 dB/octave curve
and corner frequency of 125 Hz.
44

RECORDING OCTOBER 2016

The V13 capsule is a 34 mm
diameter assembly with a working diaphragm that's 26.4 mm
(just over 1") in diameter. The
dual front/back capsules employ
edge-terminated, gold-sputtered
Mylar diaphragms that are a
mere 3 microns thick.
Going inside
Whenever I encounter any
piece of gear, my inner geek
comes forth and the first thing I
want to do is disassemble it and
check out the insides. So minutes
after getting the V13, I went
under the hood. The build quality
seems solid and the fit and finish
are first-rate. A base plate near
the output connector easily
unscrews to reveal the internal
workings (see photo 2).
Looking inside unveiled a few
surprises. The board layout is
clean with short signal paths. The
electronics take a minimalist
approach with barely two dozen
components, including high-grade
Wima capacitors and a sizeable
custom-wound humbucking transformer in a massive mu-metal casing. On the reverse side is a
board with a sturdy 9-pin ceramic tube socket for what would usually be a 12AX7 or a
ECC33 dual triode, but not in this case.
The tube circuit used in the V13 appears
to be the familiar push-pull triode configuration, but based on some kind of long
plate triode-possibly a 12BH7, although
the only marking on the tube is a
Vanguard Audio logo. Vanguard is not
revealing the name of the exact tube, other
than to say it is of European manufacture.
However, the company does suggest that
users seeking to experiment with other
tubes for alternate sounds could possibly
try 12AX7, 12AT7 and 12AY7 types.
I tried a variety of tubes with the V13.
Whether modern or NOS, the 12AX7s
seemed somewhat harsh, although I did find
an old and well-worn Mullard that actually
sounded fairly good in this application.

Compared to the 12AX7s, I had better
results with some 12AY7s, yet I kept coming
back to the V13's original mystery tube,
which provided the best results. My advice
is that tube swapping be left to experienced
users. The unit should be powered down
completely before attempting any such procedures. Also, support the tube socket firmly
when changing tubes to prevent snapping
off the daughterboard!
In session
Fortunately, the V13 sounds fine out of
the box, and I was anxious to check it out.
One nice touch is the included VLSM
shockmount, which has an open front
design for improved access to the mic in
tight placements. It's a well-engineered and
highly effective mount that does a great
job of shielding the mic from external
vibrations while holding the mic very
securely without blocking the rear-mounted
pad and filter switches. Its mounting thread
also works with the commonly-available
swivel clamps that come with other condenser mics, opening up other possibilities
for working in cramped quarters.
As I expected, changing settings on
either the pad or filter switches while the
mic was powered up created loud popping sounds. However, I was pleased to
discover that any changes to the polar pattern switch were noiseless, which is great
for "tuning" into a source or making A/B
comparisons while listening. Both the filter
and pad switches are marked with laseretched graphics for the switch positions, a
tad difficult to read in dim lighting.
Like most tube gear, the V13 requires
some time after power-up to reach thermal
equilibrium and allow the tube to stabilize.
About 20 minutes is great, but the V13 was
at least 95% there at the 10-minute mark.
Don't be in a hurry; chill out and take this
time to do vocal warmups, fix that awkward
bridge, retune that 12-string, or simply meditate to get in the proper mood.
After using the V13 for a couple of
months on every sort of instrument and
vocal, a few things were apparent. First of
all, if you are looking for a mic with a flat,
ultralinear response, you will not find it

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2016