Having heard a few recordings using the MK-012's and good reviews, I decided to try and pick up a couple of these for the arsenal. One Saturday afternoon at Guitar Center I made the Store Manager earn his pay. After about an hour of calling several locations, he managed to find 2 somewhere in Louisiana and arrangements were made to have them shipped directly to my house. A few days later I was pleasently surprised to have found I recieved ONE OF EACH "exactly" as pictured below (I hadn't yet discovered this information).
However, since I DID find out the skinny BEFORE I went back to the store, they were pretty good about it (BUSTED!). After they secured me another "original" the Manager - feeling less smart I'm sure - gave me store credit for one of the mics. So, in the end I didn't get a "matched pair" (although I don't have the equipment to check or test capsules in a store anyways) I still wound up with a pair for $150.
I've used them 414s MS Center/012 OMNIs Outboard in DECCA Matrix (give it a
listen!) ; 012 Hypers FOB/SBD Matrix; and Cards Solo. They are great sounding inexpensive Mics with excellent bang for the buck - at about the same street price I prefer them over the Studio Projects C4s.
FWIW by exactly I mean my sets are the kit that comes with Omni, Card, and Hyper Capsules but otherwise the same all neatly packed into that tiny plastic box. Hence, mine are not the "MK-012A" Single Capsule, however all else matches as shown by the images and information on the left sans frequency charts. My guess is these had been lost on a shelf somewhere for awhile. They were (still are) in mint condition when I recieved them and nothing leads me to suspect they are not real or "new".
Shout out to some good information out there on the history of all this (REFERENCES below).Original Oktava produced in Russia | Oktava from China, so-called "new revised series" not related to the genuine Oktava products |
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supplied with manual and individual response curves | supplied without any documents |
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includes -10 dB pad original metal holder all original microphones manufactured after 01.01.05 are labelled Октава МК-012 (original MK-012 microphones produced by OAO Oktava earlier can also be labelled Oktava МC 012) | no -10 dB pad supplied with plastic holder labeled Oktava МC 012
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white screws every microphone has its own serial number (MK-012 microphones manufactured before 2002 don't have serial numbers) | black screw has no individual number
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bonding area has a dimple for effective contact silver-sputtered | no contact dimple not sputtered silver no corrosion-protection |
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silver-sputtered contact-pin | unprotected against oxidation pin |
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REFERENCES:
Digidesign User ConferenceOktava: Attention - fakes!oktava.tula.net