What a clear, rich, non-sibilant sound! well done, Lewitt! You made a mic that sounds better even than some of the more expensive pieces. Thanks to Bandrew for such a thorough review. I guess I'm hearing a hello Neumann tonight in my dreams
After 2 seconds, I was in awe.. I usually don’t like Lewitt mics, when they are aggressive, but this one is with cosy warm low-mid/bass and a kind air extention. I Think it would be great on drum overhead, especially on jazz drums. Thanks for the review.
How much does the mic weigh together with the shock mount and the pop filter? Is it possible to mount the mic on the Rode PSA 1+ mic stand (up to 1,2kg)?
First off: Bandrew in 4K is wonderful and I don't know how I lived without it 😍 Secondly: I agree, this is one of my most favorite mics I have ever heard on your voice! A near-perfect blend between sounding natural while also being flattering.
Wow! I'm shocked by how many people think this is the best mic on my voice. That's quite interesting. Thank you so much for your insight and sharing your opinion.
Bandrew uses the "Lewitt Pure Tube" on his other you tube channel " Bandrew plays" in his own arrangement of "Worlds on heroine" originally from the band "All". Its sounds very good! I too think its one of the best mics for your voice Bandrew, especially for your singing
Everything lewitt has made sounds incredible, and this one is no exception. I'm probably going to get a 440 as my first xlr when I can afford it. Also, Great and helpful review as always.
I’m so impressed to hear a modern vocal microphone with minimum hype. Bravo to Lewitt. The Austrian Audio is a great reference microphone, btw., even better than the Lewitt in that regard. Listen to the midrange of the AA in your comparo. The lack of bumps is gorgeous. The two Neumanns also reveal the joy of ultra smooth response, heard after the Lewitt tube. I think staring at the glowing tube will get real old real fast. Odd little bit of silliness for a very un-silly sounding microphone. Maybe in place of your beloved stickers, they could supply a couple opaque films to block the window.
Bandrew, if ther's one thing this confirms for me, there's no substituting or imitating that lovely warm, natural, balanced tube sound. One day I hope to own even a cheap one. Kia ora for your helpful videos.
Thanks so much for watching. As long as you're selecting a mic for the sound and not the technology inside of it, then you're on the right track. I hop you're able to get a mic that you love the sound of.
Interesting how many people preder Bandrews voice on the Pure tube. I personally think he sounds best on a Mic that is a touch brighter than neutral, or on a Neumann. I think they make his voice sound very natural
I like how I sound on a number of Neumann's too. I like my voice on darker mics as well. Plenty of great sounding mics out there. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
I really liked it on the electric guitar as well. Also vocals sounded nice with a lot of warmth but a touch of clarity in the top that you were saying. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt like it sounded a bit dead or flat on the acoustic though. Maybe I just like a really bright sounding acoustic.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it. It's certainly not the brightest or exciting sound on the acoustic. I think it's great for that application though.
Damn you have a really amazing mic collection! I do like a transformer in a tube mic. But there's someone to be said for the clarity and incredibly low self noise of the Pure Tube.
I believe you mentioned in another video, that tube microphones need regular maintenance. Is this true for all tube microphones - this one as well? What costs does this add, and what are the intervals?
loved your video! I know there are some differences in sound, but once the mics cross the 1K threshold they sound a lot like each other, at least on my cheap bare minimum settings. I think you should put in the group of mic comparrisons the Rode mics. they kind of populate a lot of studios, and it wouldn't hurt to mix it with AT, Sony and Neumann mics.
Thank you for the comment. Yes, I could have included a lot more mics, and that would make it more valuable of a video. But I have to draw the line somewhere and I had 13 mic comparisons. I thought that section and the video as a whole was already too long at 13. The reason I chose the mics in this video is because I wanted people to understand how it sounds compared to Lewitt's other mics, and how it compares against mics someone is going to be deciding between. But yes, I could have included NT1, NT1a, NT2a, K2, AT4033a, AT4040, etc. and made it longer.
If you get the WA8000 I hope you drop a review or demo on RU-vid so the world can benefit from that. Thanks for the comment and thank you for watching.
That's the nearly $8,000 question now isn't it? Is it worth it? In reality, not really. Do I love how it sounds, yes. Can you get recordings that will sound just as good to 99.9% of people for less than half the price, absolutely.
Thanks for all of your hard work! I know what I’m hearing, but in your opinion and based on price point….would you go with the pure tube or the tf51 for a tube mostly for singing vocals?
@@Podcastage ……..I WANT both lol. I was asking your opinion not to decide for me, but to see if there was any perspective I hadn’t considered about either. Especially since I’ve never used or even heard either one in person and you have lol. And yes, they BOTH sound fantastic. Not positive if the price difference is justified based on what I’ve heard. Anyone have an opinion, please feel free to share!
It seems to be the first Lewitt microphone that they don't let you keep. Well, they don't have to, and you may not need it either. Yet, in my mind, Bandrew is the most deserving owner of any microphone. Anyway, after listening to your latest two BSP episodes plus this review, the Lewitt Pure Tube really sounds like a very inviting product. It's not cheap at all, of course. Yet the sound is really persuasive.
@@Podcastage I'd say if you shut down the channel you should keep/sell/give away the bits those companies have sent you. You have done them a service by doing the review, it's effectively advertising for them and with all the time you put in I think you more than deserve it. Also it sounds like a bit of a romantic thing to send them back, but they might just get them and throw them in the bin, or give them to people in the office etc. They might not actually be interested or want them....who knows. Either way hopefully you won't shut down the channel any time soon :) If you do decide to, I'm sure you'll do well in whatever you decide to do!
Even though I have heard you explain your attitude toward the so-called "free" gear a couple of times in BSP, I still want to say that what you choose to do and not do is really admirable.
@@Podcastage Or you should simply start the first microphone museum in your area, or donate it to a non-profit studio or open up a mic rental - but more importantly, I hope your channel will never shut down! Long live the Podcastage!
Looks like it comes in two versions, one being the "Essential set" that comes with a microphone holder, and the "Studio set" that comes with the shock mount and pop filter. Weird not to include the regular holder in the more expensive version of the set.
That's correct. There's the $1000 kit with the clip and the $1300 kit with the shock mount. The shock mount is so good, I'd recommend everyone go that route. It's soooo good.
I still think the KU5A is one of the best sounding mics, especially with your voice. But damn.. This mic is clean. Haven't heard a lewitt mic I didn't like.
The Ku5a is a special one. I really think ribbons are underrated...although I guess they don't make sense for most people because ease of use and durability are more important than that sweet sweet smooth ribbon tone. And yeah this is a really nice sounding mic.
Yes. The Lewitt comparisons were because that's what was most interesting to me, to see how it compared to their other offerings. I probably should have included an NT1 along with about 10 other mics to give a full picture, but I had to draw the line somewhere, and 14 comparisons is kind of too many already.
Kind of surprised how well the 440 matched up. You could send a 440 through a tube pre and probably get a pretty similar sound, i should think. You could also pull up some of your low-mids/lows with about 1 dB of gain, as the lows seem ever so slightly heavier.
Sounded fantastic on all sound tests! Very nice. Thanks for all the time spent doing these things! Do you suppose you'll buy one of these for yourself? Or to use in other review spoken word tests?
I treat gear I receive as on indefinite loan. Once I’m done with the channel it goes to the company. I’ll be hanging on to it for future comparisons. If I’m buying one Lewitt mic though it’s the 1040.
@@Podcastage because the cost of the mic you didn't give a definite "yes I would highly recommend this mic". Like you have done for much less expensive mics. You gave it limitations. Very wise limitations through, for people to be aware of. You kind of compared it to thier $300.00 dollar mic sound wise, only the tube gave it a little something extra. But is worth the extra money? I have yet to purchase a Lewitt mic. Nothing against them, I just haven't done it. I do enjoy watching your content. You have helped me with many of my purchases of mics. I hope I explained what I meant.
No grounding on that power supply... $1000 price tag. What is wrong with people!? I understand its a switching supply but I would have to assume that they're pumping out high(er) voltages for that tube. (12AU7 can take up to 330v i think). Fun how ALL the lewitt mics sound essentially the same regardless of price point (the 1040 warm setting was the only "different" one but sounded close on the bright setting) lol. Im glad that you're realistic about the price point on the 67. Just had this same conversation with an engineer friend the other day. Diminishing returns bar has been ridiculously lowered over the past 10 years or so. Great vid as always!
It's a really nice refined mic from Lewitt. They've released a number of absolute BANGERS the last two years. Pure Tube, 1040, and 950W (I can never remember that model number)
7dBa is really hard to believe for a tube mic. The noise in any mic is thermal noise. FET's are quieter than tubes because they do not have a heated cathode, and so the thermal noise is lower. Seeing as Neumann has never equaled this noise spec with any of its tube mics, I am a bit doubtful about the spec from Lewitt. One way that Neumann made their mics as quiet as they are is to design a 6kHz boost into their capsules, and then equalize that boost out in the electronics, thus lowering the A-weighted noise. But I don't think such a trick can go much further than Neumann has taken it. The only other ways to reduce noise are to use a higher bias voltage on the capsule, or to increase the capsule diameter. Higher bias leads to a danger of arcing on high volume inputs, and a larger capsule leads to directivity issues and a loss of transients.
@@Podcastage It would be difficult. It would involve either the use of an anechoic chamber or disconnection of the mic capsule, and in either case, the hard part would be measuring the infinitesimal output accurately, and comparing it to the output of the mic at a known SPL.
@@ScottGrammer I’m just going to have to do some kind of comparisons between mics. Level match. Throw them in my box of doom to eliminate some room tone and listen to the noise floor. That’s as close as I’d be able to get.
@@Podcastagelevel match by an ear, not by any lufs measurements because they are not correct because our ears hears different frequencies differently and judges loudness in a very complicated way. Then turn up the parts without any talking 20-40dB up to hear the noise difference between the mics.
Wow, that background sound rejection is amazing for a condenser. I wonder if it shares a capsule with any of it's solid state friends? EDIT: Ok, i thought was good at background rejection but Bandrew said it's not. I'm going to have to go back and listen to that bit again.
Just listen throughout the video you can hear a bit more of the reflections than you do with some other mics. I noticed this while editing my podcasts, just picked up more of the desk and monitors than other mics that I’m used to using.
@@Podcastageyou're right. On my downstairs monitors it sounded fine, but on open back headphones I could hear those reflections, especially in your untreated room. Funny how much difference your monitoring can have on the sound. Not just frequency response but actual content as well.
How about when it’s powered off? Does it make a loud pop and then have static / noise on the mic output as long as it’s connected to power outlet? That is a feature of the LCT-840 that is really annoying and I’m curious if they addressed that on this new mic!
I'll have to do some tests this weekend if I can find the time. When I was using it I don't recall any hissing when it was powered off. But I'll double check.
If you're talking about ambient noise, there aren't any mics that eliminate 100% of that and sound 100% natural. In order to achieve that noise reduction, you're going to have to eliminate as much of the noisy sound sources as you can, use the polar pattern to reject as much as you can, if you need more rejection get close to the mic to increase the signal to background noise ratio, and then you may also need to use a noise gate or spectral de noise plugin to further reduce some noise.
There a lot of good stuff going on with your review. First, thanks for showing the clear shot of the connection to the power supply. It answered a question I had about connections and power. Is it possible that this has a similar design to the LCT 540 Subzero with it's even lower noise floor.
Thanks so much John. I'm not sure if the design is similar to or borrow from the LCT540. They may have used similar approaches with the elimination of capacitors and thingamabobs, but I can't be certain. I've never torn one of their mics down before and even if I did, I'm not sure I'd understand what I was looking at.
@@Podcastage More likely to be lessons learned from the 540 design. If I were disassembling it we could probably build another mic with the leftover parts so I'm not going to criticize your knowledge level. 😁
I agree with the clip thing so much. since you can pay 1000 and only get the clip or pay 1300 and only the shockmount. I wish they sold both induvidually though too (the shockmount and clip ofc) since it kinda turns one away from one or the other. as for those whos budget is 1000 now might shy away same with those who have the budget if they don't have the clip.
I had someone tell me that you can buy the rubber mic clip for $25, so it's not a massive cost after market. It's just that when you spend that amount of money you're hoping for a great experience, and when it's missing that it just kind of stinks. Not the biggest deal, just a wish.
Is it really 7dba? I’m in the process of returning the stereo pair of their LCT - 840 tube mics because they claimed 9-10dba but it’s closer to 15-18dba. I’m curious if they are being more accurate with this noise floor rating or if it’s just as inaccurate as the LCT-840!!!
@@Podcastage I'm sure others have a scientific way to measure, but you could pit your U87 against it. Use your quietest mic Pre and talk into both mics at the same time while setting input gain so your voice is the same level for each microphone in your DAW. Then record 20 seconds or so of the room. Up the gain on this room tone equally for each track and see / hear if the noise floor is different between the microphone recordings. At 7dba the Lewitt should be way quieter waveform visually and audibly when you crank the playback gain. I'm also curious if you have extraneous noise on the mic output of the Lewitt when the power is off to the power supply, and if you have a large pop when powering the unit down while still connected to your audio interface. These are issues I'm having with my current LCT-840s and I may consider an exchange for this new mic if these issues have been resolved! Thank you for your time and for the great videos!!!
I don't have the eden or the MA300 and my current budget really doesn't stretch enough to pick up wither of those. At 08:39 I have a comparison of the pure tube to the TF51 so you can hear the exact audio from both and determine which one you like the sound of better.
The recommendation comes down to the sound that YOU want. They sound quite different to my ears. So it comes down to the sound and the feature set. Do you want the more controlled low end and more articulate sounding top end or do you want what I hear as a bit softer and smoother. The Self noise is pretty comparable with the 840 having only 9dBA of self noise, so that doesn't play too much part in a decision. Another question would be if you want the multiple polar patterns and pad and filters that you get on the 840. Everyone know I love darker microphones so I'd PERSONALLY probably go 840 if those were my two options, but in reality, I'd save for the 1040 so I could just get all of the sounds and features. But that's because I'm sick in the head and I'm addicted to mics.
@@Podcastage I hear ya on the sickness lol. Well, I already have a Telefunken Copperhead to cover main vocal duties. What I really could use is a multipattern "do it everything" utility mic. I have an OC818 that I'm trying out right now, and I like it. But its so gain hungry, and I sold all my outboard gear a couple of years ago. I've noticed the 818 likes to be worked from a bit of a distance, and my interface pres just don't have the gain for that.
I don’t think it would work well for untreated rooms sounds to me like mostly a treated room microphone, specifically for studio use where you are going to add reverb later
Yeah a lot of the more expensive mics pick up more around them and won't be ideal for untreated spaces unless that's wha you're going for. They capture what you put in front of them, good and bad.
A few years back I asked them about their manufacturing and I received a very nice e-mail in response explaining the factory conditions and accommodations. I'm of course trusting the individual who responded to me, but from what I heard it seems like things are on the up and up.
@@Podcastage lol ... i know thats someone's FAVORITE mic ?! - might be mine also along with the hello Seinfeld mic too ;) but seriously, i could hear some similarities to the SM7b .. sounded to me like there was another mic in the back of the room and the 2 were mixed together basically. - not saying your room doesn't sound sound-proofed.. just that's my first thought in hearing the sound of that mic. Did you notice what i'm saying?
It depends on how rough you are on your mics and how often you use them. I have heard 5-10 years but also believe some mics have had the same tube for decades.
i like the Howard Stern TLM 103 deal. It sounds most natural in that price range and honestly if i'm spending that kind of money, i'd rather have the hello Neumann situation... BUT THATS JUST ME ;)
There's a LOT of competition around $1300-ish dollars for fantastic mics and it's difficult to go wrong with any of them. It's just down to personal preference really.
@@Podcastage agreed so why not have that in the locker instead of ... oh i don't know, Lewitt ? (sounds like a 1700's vampire name lol... "hello Lewitt!" (too much?))
It's been 3 months since I edited and published this video so I don't know if I said the shock mount was shocking. It has levers which are very easy to use to lock and unlock it to tilt the mount and also to install the mic into the shock mount. It also does a really good job at shock rejection .
You know what's kinda funny? The AT2020 with a minute presence cut above 8k would kinda sound like the Lewitt to my ears... kinda. It's not 100% identical
It is a great sounding mic, but just goes to show that once you go above £150-200, the returns on investment are tiny, and that gap is narrowing year on year. For 99% of users the 240 is perfectly good.
I would extend a little higher. In a video I made a few years ago I say $100 for dynamics and $500 for condensers is where the law of diminishing returns really kicks in. But yes anything above an SM57, sE7, NT1, KSM32, LCT440, will offer minimal benefit for a content creator and the majority of consumers would never be able to tell a difference between them.
It all depends on what you are needing a mic for. A podcast isn't an audio book, and recording a drumset in a studio is not a field recording. Being limited to a $100 mic for the drum overhead or a raging guitar cabinet is really pushing it; as flexible as a SM57 is, it's very unflattering on 'less expensive' cymbals and will make a harsh amp sound harsh-er. This is where a ribbon mic or smooth condenser steps in to the rescue. There aren't many ribbon mics under $300 to chose from, and the smoother-sounding ones are usually above $500.
Didn't like this mic on your voice heard tons of tin noises and his entire video. Even on a phone was loud enough to hear. Wasn't going to bother hearing it on my speakers. Room noise yes for sure was intense for sure. I wouldn't buy it personally too pricey and the sound was annoying as he'll for me. So bright on a speaking voice ear fatigue was real
Very interesting that you found it fatiguing through your phone speakers. As far as Lewitt mics go this is one of their more tame offerings, and I think it sounds quite nice. But that's why I include the samples, so you can listen with your own ears and make up your own mind to determine if you dislike the mic or like it, and if you agree or disagree with me. Thanks for sharing.
Most tube mics that have patern selection on the power supply are 7 pin. 2 pins for audio, ground, b+ (high) voltage for the tube, pattern voltage, filament (heater) voltage, and some use a separate ground for the heater voltage.
I literally cant believe how nice and soft that neumann u67 is. Ugh. Its a small difference but it is so so noticeable still. God .... i hate the price tag.
