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MERCENARY AUDIO MA KM69

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12 February 2009

MERCENARY KM69 2MERCENARY KM69 2

For those of you who don’t know the name, Mercenary Audio is a major audio distributor and online retailer based in the USA. Made famous among audio dweebs by head tech and audio web forum guru Fletcher, Mercenary Audio has now branched out into gear design and manufacturing. The first fruit of the vine is the MA KM69 small-diaphragm condenser microphone. As the initials in the name bluntly suggest, this mic is designed to emulate the sound and look of famous vintage Neumann KM series mics, particularly the KM84, though MA claims to have gone ‘beyond’ that classic in some aspects of its sound and performance, adding a dash more presence and a wallop more output gain.

The KM69 is a stylish and well-built microphone about 10.5 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter. The finish is brushed silver with an imposing embossed MA logo. Some components, including the cylindrical casing, are made in China, however, the internals are largely custom made in the USA.

The most obvious divergence between the MA and the classic Neumann SDCs of yore is the total absence of valves in the Mercenary Audio model. While being slightly disappointed by this I was very impressed by the KM69’s overall performance. On acoustic guitars, hi-hats, drum overheads and percussion this mic really shone, displaying a smooth sweet top-end to compliment the nicely articulated lower frequencies resulting in an excellent tonal balance. The KM69 has quite a lush, refined sonic signature and certainly isn’t as ‘hard’ as my AKG 451s. While I couldn’t compare it directly to a vintage Neumann I’d vouch for it being a quality performer in all the usual small condenser studio roles. It’s an unusually ‘hot’ mic and I had my preamps wound down further than I’ve ever had them before to deal with the MA’s boisterous output. With no pad switch on the mic you’d need an attenuator adaptor to deal with super loud drums, guitar cabs etc but I had no distortion problems using it as a mono overhead on a medium volume drummer. Overall a great first cab off the rank for MA. Matched stereo pairs are also available.

Greg Walker

Price: $1696

Mixmasters Productions: (08) 8121 8308 or sales@mixmasters.com.au

 

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