In use, the ELA M 250 and 251 are silky and smooth, open, airy, and incredibly detailed, with a sound that falls somewhere in between that of a U-47 and a C-12. Yet, it has it's own identity, it's own sonic fingerprint. It allows vocals to fit beautifully and effortlessly into a mix, conveys the natural sound of a drum kit when used on overheads, captures the tone and body of a steel string acoustic guitar with plenty of detail and clarity.
The ELA M 250E and 251E utilize the 6072 tube.
It all started with a switch. . .
8 years ago, Toni Fishman, owner and CEO of TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik, had a brilliant idea. After speaking with numerous industry professionals about their historic TELEFUNKEN ELA M 250 and 251 microphones, he discovered that their polar pattern selector switch was notoriously fragile and often broke, leaving the mics unusable. As there were no available replacements, owners resorted to attempting to fix them on their own. Toni decided it was time that he did something about all these broken switches, so he set out to recreate it. However, it quickly became apparent to him that not only did he want to reverse engineer the switch, he wanted to recreate the whole thing. For the next two years, he was on a mission. He didn't just want to recreate the sound of the microphone; he wanted to recreate the look of the mic, the feel of the mic, the soul of the mic. He wanted to breath new life into a microphone that had been forgotten by a generation of recording engineers; bring it back from the dead. He located as many of the original blueprints as he could find. What was not available was re-drawn precisely from a multitude of pristine samples. What resulted from all this hard work and dedication was the ELA M 251E.
So, what makes these new ELA M 250 and 251 microphones so special? The heart of these microphones, the CK-12 capsule, is hand built, constructed in the same manner it was more than 50 years ago. The output transformer is custom built by the original manufacturer (Haufe) and is wound to the original specifications. The tube is a New Old Stock GE 6072a, just like the original. TELEFUNKEN has even recreated all of the original plastics, the body tube, head grille, switch housing, capsule mount, side-straps… well, you get it. Every detail is there, meticulously reproduced, right down to the screws that hold the capsule together.
Specifications:
- Type: Condenser Pressure Gradient
- Capsule: CK12 - 1" dual sided gold sputtered membrane
- Frequency Range: 20Hz-20kHz
- Polar Pattern: Cardioid & Omni
- Sensitivity: approx 1.2 mvolts per dyne/cm^2
- Impedance: 200 ohms stock / 50 ohms switchable
- SPL: 138 dB
- Non Linear Distortion: less than or equal to 0.5% at 100 dyne / cm sq
- Equivalent Noise: 16 dB (a-weighted)
- Tube Type: 6072a General Electric JAN twin triode
- Power: Dedicated Power Supply
- Weight: 20oz (567g), 34oz (960g) with swivel
- Size: 8 1/2" (216mm) length x 2" (51mm) diameter
- Extras: Locking Flight Case, Lunchbox Style Power Supply, Wooden Microphone Box
