Description
AEA KU5A
After five years of intensive research and development, AEA is excited to announce its latest creation: the super-cardioid KU5A ribbon microphone. Never before has a ribbon mic delivered as much clarity and breadth of sound in a package fit for both studio and live settings.
The KU5A’s super-cardioid polar pattern captures pure, direct sound while rejecting room tone from behind the mic. This feature prevents excessive monitoring and audience bleeding when tracking musicians live in one room or on stage. Traditional figure-of-8 ribbons, which distinctly incorporate both direct sound and room sound, rely on sharp nulls to reject unwanted bleed.
The KU5A’s end-address directionality and tight super-cardioid pattern allow for effortless positioning on the snare, toms, and other instruments that may be difficult to access. Signal bleed captured by dynamic mics and condensers often sounds harsh and brittle due to top-end frequencies. The minimal bleed captured by the KU5A sounds more natural as a result of its smooth top end and coheres well in a mix.
The active KU5A comes complete with a custom transformer and JFET electronics. It features the same custom transformer as the A440, R84A, and NUVO ribbon mics, providing greater output, less audible noise, and stable impedance. This allows for consistent frequency response and greater flexibility with different preamps, including those within audio interfaces. The boosted output of the KU5A is beneficial when recording quiet sources like vocals and soft acoustic guitars, and the active circuitry prevents noise interference. The KU5A operates with standard 48-volt phantom power.
- End-address design.
- Supercardioid polar pattern that mitigates room tone and instrument bleed.
- Active electronics optimized for all preamps.
- Durable for close range, outdoor, and live use.
- Switchable high pass filter to reduce proximity at close range.
- Made in the U.S.A.
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