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elefunken Elektroakustik is pleased tooffer our version of the ELA M 260, ourfirst small-diaphragm, tube condensermodel. While the microphone bears the“ELA M” designation, it is part of TelefunkenElektroakustik’s “R-F-T” series as it is not ahistorically accurate reproduction of the orig-inal Telefunken GmbH ELA M 260, whichemployed a different tube and output trans-former.The current “R-F-T” ELA M 260 systemaffords unparalleled versatility, astoundingaudio quality, all for an affordable price con-sistent with all R-F-T Series product offerings,and was the 2008 TEC Award
®
winner forMicrophone Technology.The ELA M 260, features a NOS (New OldStock) Telefunken EF-732 vacuum tube, andcustom-designed output transformer. Inapplication, the ELA M 260 has been foundto be an excellent-sounding transducer,which many engineers and producers haveenjoyed in widespread application over manyvarying genres of music.The Telefunken Elektroakustik ELA M 260system is supplied with a set of three inter-changeable capsules (the 260 cardioid, 261omni, and 262 hyper-cardioid), as well as acustom adaptor designed by our friend andfellow audio enthusiast, Chip Machokas, thatpermits the use of any of the AKG “CK”series of capsules, as well as capsules madeby other manufacturers with the same threadand has an available adapter that will acceptNeumann/Gefell bayonet-style capsules.As with all small capsule mics, the ELA M260 excels for the recording of acousticinstruments of all types. Acoustic guitars,drum overheads, percussion and strings aretypical signal sources that sound excellentthrough the ELA M 260.Even more impressive than our TECAward are some of the testimonials we havereceived from actual users.Bil VornDick (Allison Kraus, Bela Fleck,Bob Dylan) gave us a shout after tryingthem: “The 260s have a nice smooth tex-ture, so if you are working with an instru-ment that is a little harsh or too bright, itgently smoothes it out.”Bil then added, “If you’re not carefulwhen recording a mandolin, you get undesir-able overtones between the bridge and thetailpiece that have nothing to do with thetempered scale. I put the 260 about six inch-es away and got a perfect sound. I’m lookingforward to using these mics on a hammereddulcimer, which, in my opinion, is the hardestinstrument to record.“Next up, I was recording Charlie Haden’sstandup bass in a room with Jerry Douglas,Brian Sutton, Bela Fleck, Pat Metheny andBruce Hornsby, I switched to the hyper-car-dioid capsule and put the mic near the topside of his bass because I wanted to targethis sound and minimize leakage from thepiano and other instruments in the room. Anengineer’s hardest battle is making the musi-cians feel on playback that the instrumentsounds like it did when they were playing.Charlie listened back and wanted to take themicrophone home with him, so I scored ahome run with him.”The Telefunken Elektroakustik ELA M 260comes complete with microphone, cardioid,hyper-cardioid and omni capsules, powersupply, Gotham Audio cable, wooden micbox, and when registered, a one-year warran-ty on the capsules and tube and a 4-yearamplifier and power supply warranty. All youneed to supply is the talent!
OCTOBER 2009
GEAR GUIDE
STUDIO MIC
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ADVERTORIAL
TELEFUNKEN ELAM 260 MICROPHONE
LEARN MORE ABOUT TELEFUNKENATWWW.TELEFUNKEN.COM
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