The Oktava MK18 is the less well known, but more sophisticated older brother of the ubiquitous MK219, which is used and abused by hoards of mic-modders who love to chop and swap grills, capacitors and resistors.
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| Oktava MK18, front view with pattern switch |
In contrast to the cardioid-only 219, the MK18 is a dual diaphragm, multipattern condenser mic, with bass roll off (HPF), a -10dB pad, and pattern selector switches.
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| Oktava MK18 rear view with pad, HPF and rear capsule switch |
It also has a fourth switch with large and small cardioid symbols. This controls the 'mix' of the rear capsule, allowing the in-between patterns to be selected, to give hypercardioid and supercardioid response. Clever!
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| Oktava MK18 inside, front view showing components |
The switches are actuated by sprung bits of bent metal, and they make the mic very tricky to reassemble.
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| Oktava MK18 inside, rear view showing PCB traces |
The mic has that typical Oktava quirky build style, with etched PCBs and a small square can output transformer that looks different in size style from the ones in the MK219 and 319. The connector is a push-fit din plug!
Unfortunately this mic is designed to run with 60V rather than 48V phantom power. It will work with a normal phantom supply, but is currently giving erratically output, and may need some small modification to make it behave itself!
I have a silver MK-219. It was imported from Lithuania in the 1990s. I believe the silver models may have been those which were not originally built for export.
ReplyDeleteThere are some early models with silver MK-319 shells which feature what appears to be a Lomo-designed capsule to (IIRC it looked like that from the 19a19). I've only ever seen a couple though. They may have been prototypes!