VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

ShaneGraham057 · Contributor Joined: 01 May 2014 Posts: 49 Location: VA

Recently Techzone Audio released V2 of their pseudo popular Stellar X2 microphone.

On their site they claim to "Capture the tone of vintage microphones, but with modern specifications" I initially stumbled across their offerings from a YouTube creator who was doing different mic shootouts.

Will it have all of the bells and whistles of what they 'claim' its emulating?
I doubt it. But for under $200USD I feel that I was able to satisfy my GAS craving, and have a decent mic to add to the locker.

I guess in a sense they are (sort of) picking up where MJ left off when he stopped his offerings.

Has anyone else heard of, or sampled this mic?

JohnV · Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2019 6:53 pm Post subject:

ONLY from listening to a few of the (amusingly hysterical Crazy Eddie hyped) demos... The TZ seems to have a bit of a higher proximity resonance than, say the 103... a little more 'air' up top... which could be ok or not depending... and at $200 I'm wondering just how tight the mic-to-mic tonality is maintained in production runs.

TANSTAAFL always holds...

Anyone play with the Audio Technica 2035?
I have a pair and they maintain the AT family-character... which is more neutral. I tend to prefer that. YMMV
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Bish · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 6:37 am Post subject:

What's most impressive about this microphone is the way they've managed to get the word out and make it "personal" by getting it in the hands of quite a few "influencers". So many people are treating this like as a revelatory discovery. It's quite brilliant... they've managed to create some very powerful world-of-mouth hype, rather than just get buried in the anonymous pages of a few tech reviews.

I have listened to some a/b comparisons sent to me by a friend (a member here)... and it certainly is an OK mic. It is NOT a Neumann killer... it is a perfectly good sub-$300 microphone, of which there are many. It's fit for purpose and no one will lose a job because they use it.

I just love their marketing. Top marks.
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Philip Banks · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 7:33 am Post subject:

Raving about a cheap mic here is pretty harmless and I'm sure the Trabant is fit for purpose. Where we have to be cautious is with client facing stuff because those who care may get the wrong impression.

Signal to noise? Meh!
Signal to market? As vital as two vital things who have been made Professors of Vitalness at Nuffield College Oxford, which is like Harvard only not sh*t.

todd ellis · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2019 8:08 am Post subject:

a quick spin around the intarweb tells me this: they will sell a bunch of them ... and the vast majority will eventually find their way to a bottom drawer or ebay.
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ShaneGraham057 · Contributor Joined: 01 May 2014 Posts: 49 Location: VA

Truth be told (and excitement waned some) I did some side by side comparisons with my new <$200 vs my $1000+ go to.

Long story short - the old adage "You get what you pay for" still seems to hold true at least in this instance.

Is it a bad mic? Not at all. Is is not right for my voice and recording preferences? Lets just say that I have less heartburn spending the 5x coin for the industry standard. (Its the standard for a reason)

But hey! At least my GAS was satisfied to a degree! Laugh

yarg28 · Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 1:05 pm Post subject:

I've heard a handful of "check out my new X2!" recordings and honestly, pretty meh.

Harsh, sibilant, noisy.

I honestly wouldn't even give it the "not bad for the money" title. I've heard plenty of other mics that are as good or better in that price range that do not have an unknown company associated with them.

Already seen a couple "it was great at first but now it has a lot of self-noise" comments.

Be interesting to see how the initial couple runs turn out.

Also, be interesting to see how many end up on ebay.

Worst case...people will trick themselves into loving them and most of us will compete with lower quality submissions.

Snake oil.

Bruce · Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:29 pm Post subject:

Joseph from TechZone Audio which offers the Stellar X2 mic has asked to respond to the comments above made about the product.

todd ellis · Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 5:13 pm Post subject:

well ... there's that.
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