Anyone own a Lauten LA-320 ?

pcrecord, post: 464075, member: 46460 wrote: Hi !

There is a price reduction on Lauten mics and my GAS is very tempted.
It could be my first tube mic. There is a lot of videos online but I'd like to have the opinion of an owner.
Anyone of you has one ? How does it compare to other known mics ?

Thanks !

They look really nice but from an investment POV, I would not invest in Lauten mics. If you don't like it, you will loose half your investment immediately. They are not overly praised and are built in China. Pro Audio Manufacturers that had China building their cheap products are in for a big reality check. It may take a while but I predict sales first, followed by out of business or new lines that are now built in the USA again :).

Being said, I've owned quite a few cheaper and expensive LDC. Entry level LDC tube mics have a glassy mud sound that is just plain irritating. imho

Thanks Chris,
Going up in quality, which next Tube mic would you recommand ?
I think I'm well served with my KSM44, microphone-parts.com T12 and T47, but I'm wondering if another vocal mic around 1K CAD could up my game significantly..

there are few brands of mics that i would considered investment quality. most of them are European and there's a plethora of clones and look a likes on the market. some of them are so good to the point it seems (to me) it would be almost ridiculous to buy a Neumman or AKG new.

i'm intrigued by the Warm line of mics. i like that they are blatantly cloning industry standards. you know what you will be getting when you get one that way. i have yet to see one negative review of them. the only thing that was said was that the 87 & 414 clones sound like the vintage not the modern versions. that' s not a bad thing in mpov. i have a Warm wish list! lol.

pcrecord, post: 464077, member: 46460 wrote: Thanks Chris,
Going up in quality, which next Tube mic would you recommand ?
I think I'm well served with my KSM44, microphone-parts.com T12 and T47, but I'm wondering if another vocal mic around 1K CAD could up my game significantly..

Not sure what to recommend for you. As you know, mics are intertwined with the source and preamp so my recommendation would be advising to choose a mic you can sell should you not like it.

I've enjoyed RODE K2, had many of those pass through my studio. I sold them all for not too much a loss $. Knowing how good your reviews are, taking that into part of your considerations, doing reviews, I would choose products that are more mainstream. You can buy RODE mics pretty much anywhere. So you would get good traffic from doing RODE product reviews. But of course there are other brands too but RODE does make a decent LDC for under $1000.

for a grand you can get a Warm 87 and a 414 ... or a Warm 47 multi pattern tube condenser.

WARM AUDIO WA-251 Microphone is at 1099$ would interest me more than the warm87..
The AKG 414 isn't one of my choice.. I have 2 KSM44 that are close in quality but with sweeter high freq..

To many choices.. not enough money.. That's what it is !! ;)

if i was going to spend that kind of dough i would try to get a multi pattern mic.

251 is 700 bucks US. i guess that's 1100 CAD?

modern 414's use a plastic ring to hold the diaphragm. Warm has gone back to the brass ring and it is supposed to sound better than a new AKG ... more like a vintage C12 capsule.

The other option would be to build one.. Microphone-part.com has a 251 kit !

i don't want to whip the horse here but i believe that Warm has it down pretty good. they save money by getting boards and capsules made to their specs in China and then assemble them in the US. they use Cinimag and Marinair transformers and high quality components. build quality looks top notch. i'd love to see you review one.

The 251 is without question, one of the best vocal mics. Question is, some are poor and some are lush and some are amazing. The 251 combined with a good preamp and a good comp, OMG.:love:

I contacted Telefunken a few years back and was told they were having trouble sourcing the tube for them so just be warned that you need to get a good tube with whatever mic brand (kit) you choose. Clones can be very plosive and wooly so just know there is a reason why there are big prices tags for the beauties.

Some personal info: I own a Soundelux e250 which is close to the 251 without a variable pattern and filters and love it. Used with most quality pres, it suits my voice very well.
"The e250 is a follow-up to his ELUX 251 and is meant to be truer to the original AKG design that the original Telefunken company marketed. It’s solidly-built and comes with power supply, cable, shockmount, and wooden storage box (like most clones do to). The mic has a triple-layered screen around the capsule to help reduce plosives. There are no switches for pad or filter, nor is there a pattern selector as the mic is a fixed cardioid condenser."

Kurt Foster, post: 464086, member: 7836 wrote: i don't want to whip the horse here but i believe that Warm has it down pretty good. they save money by getting boards and capsules made to their specs in China and then assemble them in the US. they use Cinimag and Marinair transformers and high quality components. build quality looks top notch. i'd love to see you review one.

Same, I too would love to hear a review on them. However, I don't have too much belief Warm is as good as the hype. I once had a Warm pre here and sold it as fast as I got it. Total crap. But I also believe they are getting the process down better. A lot of companies that use off shore assembling etc, took years to educate China. Companies that are able to go to China on a regular bases seem to have better success with quality control.

which pre did you have?

Kurt Foster, post: 464089, member: 7836 wrote: which pre did you have?

WA12 .
https://warmaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/WA12-FRONT-72DPI-1500x600.png

that's the Melcor clone. think Wally Heider / Muscle Shoals early LA sound. looks pretty nice to me. i lust for the 412. you did know the op amps are socketed and you can swap them out? you can drop a 2520 right in there.

Kurt Foster, post: 464091, member: 7836 wrote: that's the Melcore clone. think Wally Heider / Muscle Shoals sound. looks pretty nice to me.
.

re looks: I thought so too. Its been discontinued for a reason I suppose. It was so bad I never had an interest to advertise them here again. I know Warm has come a long way since then, so I'm told and I hope I am wrong about my negative opinion. I wish people success and good fortune but have little praise for cheap clones that put the great ones out of business dumming down this entire industry etc.

Personally, I think there are good low cost mics and pres out there but I've become spoiled too. I'm also increasingly leary investing in anything that is made to look really nice that is very affordable. Add up all the marketing, packaging, shipping and profit to something, see whats left for the actual build and that pretty much sums up what you are paying for.

audiokid, post: 464090, member: 1 wrote: WA12 .
https://warmaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/WA12-FRONT-72DPI-1500x600.png

I think their newer WA73 has been made with more care..
There are so many clones of the 251 of many I can't afford.. I found a used soundelux with a small search 2900CAD.. way more than i could spend..

pcrecord, post: 464093, member: 46460 wrote: I found a used soundelux with a small search 2900CAD.. way more than i could spend..

Indeed. Not trying to up your price... just sharing my opinion and basic knowledge on what I know about those mics and why they cost so much in the first place. The tubes alone are extremely pricey and hard to get.
If you were to do a review on one, I would be interested but I personally wouldn't ever buy one because you simply cannot make them for that price. they aren't a 251 but they still may sound great which is really the most important thing at the end of the day..

audiokid, post: 464092, member: 1 wrote: I know Warm has come a long way since then, so I'm told and I hope I am wrong about my negative opinion. I wish people success and good fortune but have little praise for cheap clones that put the great ones out of business.

you are the first person i have heard say anything negative re; / Warm. there are some very reputable people in Nashville and LA who are really loving the stuff. when i see the build quality and the kind of components used i don't see how they could be that bad. perhaps as you say the MkI was no good or maybe you just got a lemon. i really think you should give them a second look to be fair. i understand what you say about price competition but it's a different world with different expectations. recording has become more an avocation than a vocation with different budgets and the tools needed to post weakly monetized YouTube content only need to impart that "thing" a Neumann or Neve does and not necessarily exactly the same sound. you can take two of any mic or pre side by side and they can sound very different. especially with older stuff. that's why they match pairs of things. a reasonable approximation of a U87 @$600, is a welcome addition imo.

Mojave audio hand builds their mics in California. Not sure about Peluso prices but they have a long standing good reputation. Beez kneez and cathedral pipes also make a very high quality product.

I know you said 414 was out but theres a company, Austrian Audio i think, that is a group of former AKG employees, who are making a 414 with the original capsule ie the 414eb style. The 414eb is an animal and a true classic sounding mic, not the same as harmon era akg (which i like very much)

To me Warm, while might be good, just doesn't have the rep of botique, its name represents value (and quality), but still has that "mid level" vibe. Fair or not.

The mics i mentioned up top are much more boutique, even if they are clones. They are high end, and while not recognizable by the masses as a Neumann, they truly make a product as good or better.

The best ldc mic ive ever used is an akg c12. Full, robust, sweet... Just an ideal mic to my ears.

Kurt Foster, post: 464095, member: 7836 wrote: you are the first person i have heard say anything negative re; / Warm. there are some very reputable people in Nashville and LA who are really loving the stuff. when i see the build quality and the kind of components used i don't see how they could be that bad. perhaps as you say the MkI was no good or maybe you just got a lemon. i really think you should give them a second look to be fair. i understand what you say about price competition but it's a different world with different expectations. recording has become more an avocation than a vocation with different budgets and the tools needed to post weakly monetized YouTube content only need to impart that "thing" a Neumann or Neve does and not necessarily exactly the same sound. you can take two of any mic or pre side by side and they can sound very different. especially with older stuff. that's why they match pairs of things. a reasonable approximation of a U87 @$600, is a welcome addition imo.

Absolutely agree.

Regarding the Warm stuff, the WA12 could have been a lemon, not sure. I think someone said it was as good as other great pre’s for way less $. After that... I have a bone of contention when I hear people say something sounds like something else, when it’s thousands $ less. It’s a pet peeve I guess.

Back to Marco ... My initial thoughts here are to inspire more angles for Marco to think more on (buying, selling reviewing etc) to purchase or to include in his reviews.
If he’s going to go for a 251 of any kind... knowing more about the history of these mics is good to know, which was really what I’m getting here.:)