Price is for the pair.
The original capsules in this pair of ECM-377's have been reskinned to be converted to traditional condenser capsules, which are the same capsules used in the Sony C500. The internal amplifier has been replaced with Peluso's P84 (KM84) amplifier and output transformer. The result is a hybrid of the C500 and a KM84 in an ECM-377 body. The sound of these mics is pretty incredible, and surprised us when compared them to the hundreds of other mics we sampled for the site - definitely in the top three condensers of them all.
The ECM-377 was one the flagship model of Sony's earliest electret condenser mics in the 1970's, and was the world's first high performance studio electret mic. Its body looks like the offspring of a C38b and C500, and it uses the same capsule as the C500 of the same era, but set up as an electret with a "permanently" charged backplate to provide the polarization voltage to the capsule, removing the need for a polarization circuit inside of the microphone.
Although most modern studio condensers are now electret mics, early electret microphones from the 70's started losing their backplate charge after a couple decades, which means all ECM-377s today suffer from a low polarization voltage which translates to low output, reduced frequency response, and high noise floor. And since electret mics don't require a polarization circuit, they don't have one, so even if you reskin an electret as a traditional condenser, you won't be able to polarize the capsule.
So for this pair of ECM-377s, we sent them to John Peluso for a complete overhaul. He reskinned the original capsules, which are the same capsule used in the famous and impossible to find Sony C500, and replaced the original internal amplifier (which wasn't the best in the first place) with his P84/KM84 amplifier and output transformer. The result is a gorgeous sounding mic with the smoothness of a c500 and tonal character of a KM84 but with excellent output and incredibly low noise floor.
The high pass filter ring has been disabled on the microphone to clean up the signal path and increased the mics reliability and longevity.
