Hey there from Aust.

Just bought a pair of Lomo 19a9's - as I am waiting for them to get here from Germany anyone want to tell me more about their experiences with them?

Cool,

Luke.

Did you get the ones that just sold on ebay? I almost bid on those but decided against it. I do have a 19A9 purchased from Michael Vladimirsky and I love it. It's a fantastic and very useful microphone. I have been very pleased recording a variety of vocalists with mine. It also helps to maintain clarity on a dark-sounding guitar amp and it can get a bit gritty when placed in front of a loud, heavily distorted guitar amp, which I enjoy. It makes for an interesting mono drum overhead. I've also had good results recording a dark soprano saxophone and violin with it. Assuming you get some in good shape, you should be quite happy with them. If for some reason you're not, email me and I may be able to help you get rid of them. Best of luck!

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Yeah I just bought the pair off evilbay. I think that people were a little sceptical because it was a re-list and one doesn't work properly. Thankfully near where I live, a guy who specialises in tube gear esp. old european mics and pres works and so I was a little more confident bidding. I have heard that the lomo 19a9's are a little noisy so I'll have to wait and see how these go. The custom made tube pre that comes with the set could be a thing of beauty or something that I might use as a paper weight.

Thanks for your comments - anyone else?

Luke.

I've seen this auction as well but decided not to bid because the mics power supply is built into the tube pre-amp. Unless you built your own power supply you're stuck with this unit.
The tube pre-amp that comes with the mics has only unbalanced outputs and no xlr inputs. This limits it's use quite a lot.
I assume that the second mics capsule is faulty but I'm sure you bought a very unique piece of russian audio history. If the unit works properly it will sound amazing especially for 800-and-something Euro.
Good luck with your new mics,
Max.

As far as the power supply/pre-amp is concerned. I will have to make some modifications anyway seeing as how it's running on Russian AC - anyone know what they run over there - I know german stuff is cool in Australia (except for connections) but Russia???

Yeah it was kind of strange in a way I saw that a lot of people had looked at the auction but when it came time to bid there was only one other guy bidding. I took it to mean there will probably be a few things to sort out but for the price a pair of these guys once they have been serviced will definitely give a unique sound to the projects I am producing.

Any other comments are welcome - should have the mics in a few days, this time of year is crazy for posting stuff o/seas.

Cheers.

Michael Vladimirsky occasionally has extra PSUs around if you're interested. I know he's travelling right now and sometimes that tends to slow down his email contact, but he's a very nice and very knowledgeable guy. You can check out his website at www.microphones.ru and you can email him there as well. As far as the power conversion goes, I've been using simple step-down transformers (the kind that you can get at Radio Shack for about $30) with my Lomos because I haven't gotten around to modding the PSUs yet. These seem to work fine.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Thanks very much Chris. I have actually done a bit more asking around and all I should need to do is change the connections for the PSU because it is 220V and in Aust. we run 240V which is fine - just the connections will be different.

As far as balanced in's go I think it does have XLR and it definitely has XLR outs.

I should get in a few days I will post my findings. She looks like a funky old bit of gear - let's hope she sounds funky!

So I got these crazy Russian beauties. And this ugly as all get out pre-amp which I reckon looks beautiful!

I haven't had much time to look at the mic or pre because I've been tracking and mixing so finally today I might get a chance to pull it appart and see how the pre works.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Finally had a chance to fire up and try the mics out. Threw the power on - valves start to give some soft orange love. I turn up the fader on the console hold the mic and ... a nice open sounding mic with clarity, detail, warmth and compassion on ordinary sounds.

I got the other engineer to play a few chords on his nice maton acoustic which was in sore need of some new strings and it sounded lovely. What I especially liked was the way that the mic evenly absorbed the transients when he really gave it a hard strum - when I say absorbed I mean that their was an increase in volume but the frequencies were even and pleasant to the ear whilst remaining very natural.

All in all the pre-amp works. You have to turn up the gain with a screwdriver at the moment and it is as hot as hell probably +15db but I'll have to check all this with test tones etc. The pre-amp is a little noisy or it may be the mic (the pre-amp actually has valves in the psu it seems). But at 0bd it is still quite exceptable and a little roll off would help. The mics both "work" but one is a little off and needs some attention. And the working one sounds fine.

So now all there is to do is start being creative.

Thanks for all the advice/ info and the like. Cheers - Luke.