Ok buyer number one fell through , Steve brought them to me yesterday , I only wanted to buy them coz they were dirt cheap , they are a pair and I have never pulled apart a square diaphragm mic before , I told steve that, he said "well why don't you test them ..pull them apart and then decide if they are for you , at least then I can sell them knowing whats what"
ok so I am NOT keeping them ..
but here is the review .. its the only one your going to find on the net
so act fast and somebody buy these pics off Steve before I get a chance to change my mind .
don't "be a put them on hold guy " steve needs the money just buy em . they are cheap .
ok first thing .. they are built like tanks , tanks with little ornate spinning wheels and monkeys and rubber bands making magic things work inside .. for such a little mic this is no easy task , neumann mics of this size are kind of really dangerous to pull apart .. these actually so well built and engineered its remarkable.. totally serviceable forever .. so for a multipatten little itsy bitsy but repairable mic , neumann could learn a lot here . ( read ..don't ever pull apart a neumann km 56 unless you own it and don't mind breaking your stuff because its so fiddly )
here is the size of them compared to a U87
IMG_1702.JPG
they are multi pattern transformer balanced f.e.t based large diagram ( rectangular capsule ) microphone
a u87 is a good comparison sonically , I compared them to my newly super matched pair of old u87 pair with new diaphrams, these two milab mics are just as closely matched as is ( i.e. thats totally matched)
they sound a like the u87 ..but better , a tad airer ..more upfront . about6-7 db louder then the u87
but these are the old classic u87
a u87ai would be about the same level .. as the milabs
but the newer u87 ai distort with any real super level
that is to say these milabs are loud mics ! ( with no background noise ) , the specs sheet says you can hit them with 145 db before they distort which is remarkable if true .
so think of them as being small u87 and your going to be ok ..
thats how they where marketed .. same price as a akg 414 but as good as a u87
err EXCEPT they have a very pronounced proximity effect in cardiod , of coarse you could use the omni setting to avoid this but then the magic "how did they do that tone" goes away .
i.e. the closer you get to the capsule after about 60 cm the more bass you get to the point where if your right up on something like an acoustic guitar its all about the bass ..
much more then the u87 i used my trusty "this will send any thing but the finest mic running" gibson j200 it has so many frequencies going on most mics give up quick ..
up real close where you could put a nickel sdc nemann like a tube neumann km 54 or m563 the milab had too much proximity bass rise so for me to recommend them for close micing anything with real bottom end .
milab obviously knew this and they have a variety of bass roll off switches which immediately solves the proximity problem and of coarse takes all the remarkableness of the capsule away with the roll off ..
no boom no magic tone .
so my take is although they are little, although you could dream of putting them in squeezly little spots on drums and they would take both the level and allow you to get in close , the proximity effect would have you eqing the hell out of them if they are up close ..
so back them off to a meter and frankly you would be hard pressed to find a better sounding microphone and certainly not 2 for this price ..
now the capsule .. its rectangle ..its nickel , so its uncleanable .. none of that is an issue right now because although there are a few bits of stuff on both capsules
they are perfectly amazing in tone and response , you can't blow them out .
milab still make the capsule .. it would be a 5 minute job if they ever needed replacing
.. point being don't worry about these capsules certainly not at this price
electronics on both mics are exactly the same except for the two electolyics caps which may have been replaced ,
there are no serial numbers but they are clearly brother and sister mics
i have been right over the mics they are good to go in every way
so why aren't i keeping them ..?
well its this simple I have over 60 mics
every mic in my collection excels at a particular job .
i can see these milabs being
amazing piano mics
amazing room mics ,
amazing violin mics
they report to take super sound pressure level so they would make an exceptional room guitar mic, which is where an u87 ai would let you down by distorting on a distant marshall cab setup for instance .
but the catch for me is they are not better then some of the things I have for stereo stuff , I have a brauner vm2 tube stereo mic and a neumann dummy head stereo mic which would do the stereo thing better then these and cost twenty times as much I NEED those mics , I don't need these ones as well
I hate setting up stereo mic out of singles but thats just me.
The advantage of the small diagram mic is you can put them any where they fit AND you can put them up close without the proximity bass boost being too much. this milab mic is a large diaphragm condenser , just cos its small doesn't make it as useable as a little neumann up close . you would have to learn it .. i like my mikes dumb enough for me not to have to learn nothin.
so with these babies , I am sure if i owned them i would learn what they do best and assign them to that task .
but i suspect they should sell by the end of the weekend to somebody with a more modest collection and a need to have a great matched pair of mics they are sure to please.
I have spent a very long time ( years ) finding a pair of early u87 mic that are the same series internally and actually test the same after reconditioning ( after 40 years most don't / can't )
and then getting them exactly matched new capsules .. gunter made them perfect.. and really i just wanted to find out wether the old u87 was worth the internet hype .
for most things i would ever use the pair of u87 on these milabs do it better .. hands down if that answers that .
so buy the milabs & buy them as a pair ..
why they were hanging around long enough on the forum for me to get hold of them just so i could pull them apart and test them to see whats what is beyond me .
I don't have the enough money to buy things that don't make me money right now or i would just stick them in the cupboard because they are neat.
its a walk up
these are the great vintage stereo pair of quality mics you wished you had of bought on turtlerock ..
but you just weren't sure ..
then they where gone
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by Thirteen » Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:20 pm 
