The LOMO 19a18 is a Soviet LDC tube mic with a unique end-address design, using a 34mm single-sided M7 style center-terminated cardioid capsule housed in a Soviet space-aged capsule enclosure. The microphone uses the Soviet 6S6B subminiature tube, which is also used in the 19a4, 19a10, 19a13, and 19a14. The output transformer is located in the body, and the mic is powered by the LOMO 20B81 unregulated PSU. The 19a18 stands out from most of the other LOMO tube mics in that it has a more pronounced presence peak, making it especially flattering on acoustic instruments and darker sources, or when you want something to stand out in a mix. Unfortunately, due to the shape of the housing and the fact that the mic uses a silver washer against the gold diaphragm, the 19a18 capsule is especially prone to corrosion, which causes loss of low end and a harsh upper mid-range. Of the two dozen or so 19a18s that we’ve had come through the studio, I’ve only heard one or two with original diaphragms that sound the way the should. This 19a18 capsule has been carefully reskinned and tuned by John Peluso to match our studio’s benchmark example. Despite their somewhat complicated backplate tuning system, he’s able to match them precisely every time.
This is a beautiful original 19a18 set with a custom wooden mic box, original clip, original 20B81 PSU (it’s missing its nameplate, but it is a 20B81), and nice new set of cabling.
You can listen to a pair of reskinned 19a18’s used on two different recordings at the link in our bio. These songs were done before we came up with our “proprietary microphone jingle”, but still recorded unprocessed, and include individual files and a lightly processed stereo mix for each song.
