Sahiaman little blondie condensers group buy

[Alistair]

MICS HERE. PLEASE GET IN TOUCH IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD FROM ME! (That's you Pete!)

[Ben M]

Hi Alistair, I'd be down for 3 mics......if your happy to organise everything.

Sound bites sound great for a $100 mic.

I'm in for 3.

[Barney Loveland]

I'd be interested in a pair.

[PeterR]

I could use a pair too. Sign me up.

are these using the little panasonic capsules?

[Alistair]

Whoa, a little bit of interest there!

Ok, I'll go ahead and try and lock down a price- potentially if we are over $1000 worth it might be best to split it up, so let's keep that in mind.

I'll let you guys know what I hear back.

[SteveL]

I have a pair here in Sydney if anyone wants to give 'em a whirl before ordering. They're tiny things, built into the boot of an xlr plug, the whole thing about the size of your little finger. Great mics, excellent for overheads. Pair is in a little metal box about the size of 2 decks of cards, so if anyone wants to pay postage I'm happy to send them out to you to trial and return to me (regular forum members only). I use them for room mics recording school choirs on location, but since school hols are here, they won't be used much for the next month or so....

Steve Lindsay

[Alistair]

Ok-

I haven't heard back from the maker yet, but I've had quite a response- up to about 15 mics. Obviously let's see what his response is, but assuming everything is cool to go ahead and the price is around $100, I'm going to either

1) Cap it at the first 9 or so mics (ie people that got in touch with me first). That's the GST limit and it's not worth having to deal with that.

2) Suggest we divide it up by state etc and have a couple of people make the orders. That way I can just grab some for the Melbourne guys, someone can do NSW/QLD.

So I guess if anyone's keen, expressions of interest in the thread and we can see what happens.

Peter- no idea how they are made/whats inside except for the info in the thread I linked too. A large proportion of the mics are handmade (as opposed to just assembled) I believe.

[audioio]

no idea how they are made/whats inside except for the info in the thread I linked too. A large proportion of the mics are handmade (as opposed to just assembled) I believe.

It's a very long thread. If you trawl through it, there's a suggestion that at one point the maker was going to stop (and get back to studio work), but evidently he did not or took up building them again. There's also a suggestion later that he and his associates were gearing up for "production" run; someone posted pictures of a "prototype" and a "final" design. If this is serious, we might find the prices are a little higher, because setting up for manufacture might involve some overhead.

There also seems to be the option for wooden bodies and those with them say they're a bit "darker" than the metal-bodied ones.

I'd be interested in a couple--metal or wood--too.

[Alistair]

Yep- I saw all that.

I was hoping to get a couple of prices from him and go from there- if you look at the very end his also made some multi capsule LDC's, (I think some are stereo/quad mics with 4 capsules!). The wood ones look beautiful!

I saw the posts about tooling up for production and also stopping, but never heard anything more about them so I assume it's business as usual. I think the wait is longish now- maybe 4-5 weeks.

[justin]

I'm interested..

Anyone else in Adelaide keen??

[Alistair]

Hi guys,

I've heard back from Aman (the maker), and he's kindly said-
"Sure thing, I can price them out so you guys get free shipping. Let me know the final tally and I will work out a good price for the bulk buy."

What I'd like to do is get the total, and then depending on what it gets up to as a price, I might ask him to separate it up into 2-3 shipments and we can sent them out to different places, or I can get them all. Depending on the price, it might be easiest just to cop the GST as well (it will only be 10%, as they are handmade in the US).

Can anyone that's interested let me know in the next day or so, so I can send off a list to him? Also, if you've mentioned you're keen and you've changed you're mind, let me know and I'll take you off the list.

[Suburban Studios]

Hi Alistair,

I am Melbourne based and would also be interested in 2 mics.
Appreciate your initiative. Thanks for taking the time to organize this.

Kind regards,
George

[Ender]

I'd be interested in two blondies.

[Alistair]

OK-
I've got some prices from Aman-

"Hi Alistair,

The metal ones were $85 when I started now they are $105 due to increase in cost on my end to keep quality control up. For a group by I will knock $5 off each mic though and do free shipping.

I'm doing the wood ones also and they are $142, but for a group by I will knock $5 off on each of those also. I have Australia Jarrah wood I can make them from also."

So $100 for metal, $137 for wood. All in US dollars. Looks like shipping to Aus will be free, depending on how we do it, a possible 10% GST charge, + a few bucks each for customs fees.

I think how I'm gonna run it is like this-

I'll leave it open until Thursday 23rd morning- on that day I'll send Aman a total list of the number of mics and get a confirmed price- presumably we'll all be busy for a couple of days around Christmas etc, so sometime after that I'll confirm everything and get in touch with you guys re: payment. I'm not sure if he will want $$$ before he builds them or just before shipping.

I'd love to be able to cover them all, but at the numbers we've got, I'll need you guys to prepay for the mics. Then we can work out shipping when they arrive. Anyone in Melbourne is willing to pick up from me, and I'll send them wherever. Depending on what you guys want, I could get all the Sydney mics shipped to one address for pickup, same with Adelaide/Bris etc.

Can I also suggest, that if we're gonna get a $5 per mic discount, that we pool that saving up and donate it to a charity? That seems to be in the spirit of mics....

I'll adjust the first thread to read the current orders I've got. Let me know if you want to change what I've got you listed for.

[PeteB]

Alistair,
Please put me down for 2 x Blondie's.
I'm in Vic.
Cheers
Pete Bird

[Alistair]

Ok- everyone should have received a PM with details for the group buy. Let me know if you haven't.

[chribble]

missed this am i too late. id be down for one wood blondie
i have 2 metals already

[Alistair]

I've sent you a PM- it'll need to be quick.

[chribble]

done!

[Alistair]

Mics are finished, and will be sent in the next couple of days. When I've got the tracking number I'll email it out to all of you. If you don't have a tracking number by Thurs, get in touch as it means I don't have your email address.

[Suburban Studios]

Thanks for the update Alistair. It is much appreciated.

Cheers,
George

[chribble]

Hey Alistair - any updates?

Appreciate your help so far!

[Alistair]

Due to land tomorrow- PM me your email address so I can include you on the emails I've been sending out. Mass PM's through here got time consuming.

[Alistair]

Bump it up. Mics here

[Alistair]

Ok,
half of them are sent out/picked up. Still waiting to here from-

PeteB-

Suburban Studios

Ender-

Audioio-

[Hud]

First impressions anyone?

[Alistair]

I've only had a quick muck around, but I'm thinking they are on the darker side of natural- and bigger than you would think from such a tiny mic. They are really amazingly small.

I haven't had a chance to do a great test yet- busy, but also I can't seem to find a good mic clip for them. They are too big or too small for almost everything.
Anyone have any ideas?

[SteveL]

I can't seem to find a good mic clip for them. They are too big or too small for almost everything.
Anyone have any ideas?

I use a couple of the Hercules mic clip adaptors (MH100B) for them. Works fine, and cheap.

http://www.herculesstands.com/mics/MH100B.html

Also, the mic clips from Oktava MK12s work fine too, but the Hercules grip better. The little blondies are hard to clamp in a clip due to the shape of the housing, big one end and small at the other.

Steve

[Alistair]

Thanks Steve,

Good tip. I'll hunt some down.

[Ben M]

I tried mine on O/H's the other day. They needed a little scoop around 500hz but not bad considering how much they cost.
I haven't had time but I'll try to put them up against some of my other mics...like km 84's etc..they're sure to lose that one.
Acoustic gtr would be a good test. Anybody done that one?