In this digital age of audio production and plugins, many of us are craving for that great analog sound in our production.

Last week I ran into an Ebay sale where some NOS (New Old Stock) Telefunken 12AX7 (or for us Europeans ECC83) Smooth Plate tubes were on sale. Together with my dad (who is a bit of a microphone junkie) I bought the three new old tubes to do some experimenting. Together we own a couple of SE Electronics Tube Mics in our humble microphone collection. They already have a decent sound of their own – as many reviews in magazines and blogs have stated – but not U47 good or Brauner VMX good.

So, we would try and see if replacing the tubes would make any difference. The SE Mics like the 2200T, ICIS, Z5600A II, and the Gemini II all use exactly the same chinese manufactured 12AX7 tube with the Gemini II also using a second 12AU7 tube. We replaced them all with the Telefunken ECC83 tubes except for the Gemini for which my dad also bought a Telefunken ECC82 tube to replace the 12AU7. Lucky for us the SE mics are very well made and allow for easy tube replacement as they are all mounted on a socket and not directly soldered onto the PCB (Printed Circuit Board).

The change in sound was different for each microphone but for which I have just one word – stunning. Instantly the noise level of the microphones dropped, the high frequencies sounded better and more open and almost all microphones suddenly exhibited more character like you would expect from a Tube mic. We tested the microphones with both tubes by singing exactly the same phrase at the same distance to the capsule and through the same preamp. Hardly scientific I know but the difference was so apparant that it was clear the tubes did a great job.

We also recorded the same phrase through a Brauner VMX to see if the SE Mics with the new tubes could hold their own and to our big surprise the 2200T came the closest to the character of the Brauner where it became very hard to tell the difference.  They all had a smoother, richer and creamier sound where the difference was most apparant in the ICIS. Where before I would instantly pick the quality of the Brauner for the job (depending on what I am recording) I now had a couple of competitors in the closet. It was a nice day of experimention and a $120 well spend I must say.

If I get the chance I will try and post some soundfiles for you to compare the differences.