The Joe Meek TB47 and Soundking SKEA002

The Soundking SKEA002 is a solidly built vacuum tube, condenser microphone with incredibly low noise at a very decent price. The one-inch, dual diaphragm allows a large amount of sonic interpretation to your recordings and the detail is clean and pristine. Alternatively it can offer ‘drive’ courtesy of the valve preamp. It is perfect for vocals but equally at home on almost any acoustic instrument or even screaming guitar or heavy bass.

The SKEA002 uses a gold diaphragm with a -10dB pad and low frequency roll-off switches, front and centre, just below the upper housing. The separate power supply is equipped with a single rotary pot for continuously variable control of pick-up patterns from omni through
cardioid to figure-eight. Tonally it is a bright microphone, with a noticeable scooping out in the midrange and a modest bottom end. But the strength of this mic lies in its top end where you can really hear the valve at work creating a saturated and slightly grainy image.

The warmth and hi-end 60’s sizzle is perfectly suited to guitars. It also does a great job on acoustic instruments (mandolin, violin, banjo) where a bright, slightly more flamboyant tone is required. On drums it is useful as a souped-up room mic source or as an overhead.
The top end sibilance is perfectly contrasted to vocals and the spectrum that the microphone captures is detailed in frequency. Included in the package is a solid aluminium carrying case, foam windscreen, power supply and heavy-duty braided cable. For a mic that
produces recordings that sound like a pro studio, you would expect to pay several thousand dollars.

As at June 2009 the RRP in Australia was$699.