Recording - January 2016 - 23

I was surprised by how nicely the M60
handled vocals, from choral group vocals to
lead; again, think natural but not hyped. I
should not have been surprised, as the
Beatles used KM84s to record the vocals on
much of the live Let It Be sessions (like their
rooftop performance), and KM184s show
up on the judges' desk on American Idol.
The only warning for vocal use is that
like the KM84, the M60 is very prone to
plosives. The mic cuts out and thumps
from blasts of air. If you plan to use the
M60 on voice, I recommend a few inches of distance and a good pop filter with
the windscreen.
The M60 has a nice controlled offaxis rejection with a quick yet dull
rolloff with the cardioid capsule, and it
is noticeably tighter with the hypercardioid. The omni stays wide open and is
sonically the crispest of the capsules.
While it offers more overall low-end
capture, like most omni mics it has
almost zero proximity effect. Both cardioid and hypercardioid have a hint of
proximity effect, but only when a source
is an inch or less from the capsule.

Conclusions
This is one of the nicest pencil condensers I have ever used, although I am
sure I am quite swayed by how close it is
to my all-time favorite pencil condenser,
the KM84. A pair of these in any studio
will go a long way and cover a lot of
bases. Finances permitting, the Stereo
Master Set is the way to go-believe me,
you'll use and love all three capsules.
By way of a quick PS: At the 2015 AES
show Telefunken showed the new DC7
drum mic kit, which adds a pair of M60
mics to the contents of the DD5 kit that I
reviewed in January 2014: one shortbodied M80-SH mic, three short-body
M81-SH mics, an M82 kick mic, drum
clips, cables, and carrying case.
Prices: M60/M61/M62 single mic
$595/605/615; M60/M61/M62
Stereo Set $1150/$1175/$1195;
Master Set $895; Stereo Master Set (as
reviewed) $1695
More from: Telefunken Elektroakustik,
www.t-funk.com

A Chat with Designer Ryan Loftus
Since the M60 is a from-scratch design, where did you start and what were some
of your design goals?
Ryan Loftus: Our initial intent was to design a new take on the classic Class-A FET
amplifier with a transformer output and bring something fresh to the small-diaphragm
condenser market. Most important to us was fast transient response, very low amplifier THD, and high SPL handling. There was no conscious goal to emulate any existing microphone, but we certainly did reference classic designs in this field, such as
the KM84 and U87. We were also designing for our existing TK60 capsule set.
Telefunken already had great success with the tube based ELA M 260. Is the M60
voiced to be a solid state M260?
Buildwise, they share the same chassis and assembly process. and both models' frequency response is shaped by the TK6x capsule series. Since the M60 is designed to be a flatresponse FET amplifier with very low noise, it's more of a great counterpart to the M 260.
Can you break down some of the components and where they are made?
Everything in the amplifier is hand-assembled in our Connecticut facility: handplugged and soldered circuit boards, individually biased for lowest possible THD, and
critically tested and listened to. All metalwork is custom-made and machined exclusively for our product. The audio transformer is designed specifically for the M60 and
custom-wound for us here in the US; it was based off of the transformer in the M 260.
The FET we selected for the circuit is critical to the performance of the M60, it's a
newer component on the market that tested very impressively. The capsules are
sourced from a prominent and respected global capsule manufacturer. They are
made to our tight production tolerances for frequency response and sensitivity, and
every capsule is individually tested at our facility in Connecticut in an anechoic
chamber. We even set aside perfectly matched pairs for stereo sets!
Last question: what was your favorite part of designing this mic and what was
the biggest challenge?
Our favorite part of designing the microphone was developing the circuit from the
ground up, both mechanically and electronically, without needing to adhere to any
existing microphone's voicing or design. Being a new field of design for Telefunken
Elektroakustik, it was exciting and challenging to develop the original concept into a
fully manufactured product.
One of the biggest challenges was planning the assembly process to fit in such a small
chassis footprint. What we learned during this design process is now being applied to a
number of new FET-based products that we are very excited to release in the coming year.
RECORDING January 2016

http://www.t-funk.com http://www.placidaudio.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2016