Topic: Lomo MKE100

[OOK]

Anybody know anythinng about these mics.  Are these early Oktava's?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-MICROPHONE-LOMO-MKE-100-STEREO-PAIR-MINT-COND-/150955685373?pt=US_Vintage_Pro_Audio_Equipment&hash=item2325a8f5fd

[heehaw]

No, it's not early Okatva. LOMO is from St. Petersburg, Russia and OKTAVA is from Tula, Russia.
And there's no hisorical crossing between these names as i know.

[OOK]

Lifted from the sale of a Oktava MKE-2

The Oktava MKE-2 is a modern version of the Lomo MKE-100

The best way to understand this microphone is by comparing it to the Shure SM81.   They are both high quality small diaphragm electret condenser microphones that are great for both studio and live sound.   The Oktava's look and sound is a bit more, "European, borrowing heavily in design from vintage German made microphones.
 
For those who don't know an electret condenser has a static (fixed) voltage across the capsule, so no high voltage polarization is necessary. Today, many high end companies are making professional quality electret microphones. Historically, in the US, American and Japanese manufactures popularized the electret in the 70's and took full advantage of the lower manufacturing costs and made cheap, slightly noisy mics mostly for home and semi-pro use. In Russia this wasn't the case, and the technology was used in the Lomo and Oktava MKE microphones which featured high quality, quiet preamps and they made serious studio microphones using electret technology. This MKE-2 microphone is the modern benefactor of that. This preamp uses standard 48vdc phantom power to power the preamp, which means no annoying batteries that are associated with low cost electrets.

[TNJazz]

Several of the LOMO engineers left in 1991 to form Nevaton.  I'm told that they have the rights to all the old LOMO stuff and one day Nevaton may reissue or recreate some of the classics.

That being said, I have no idea how these mics relate to Nevaton other than as a precursor to their modern microphones.