Boutique condenser microphone specialist Roswell Pro Audio has announced a new flagship model, the Roswell Aztec, a multipattern tube mic ‘built without compromise’.
Rather than clone a vintage design, Roswell has reimagined it with new features and upgrades. The mic incorporates a high-pass filter switch to reduce proximity for close mic placements, while a second switch enables an attenuation pad to increase headroom for high-SPL sources. A control on the power supply provides nine discrete polar patterns.
The Aztec’s single-triode topology, edge-terminated K251 capsule, and custom-wound European T14 transformer mimic the airy, intimate top end and muscular bass of the finest vintage tube microphones.
The microphone’s power supply is fully regulated and excessively filtered. It includes numerous component choice unique to the Aztec – NOS tantalum resistors, a Swiss-made pattern control, and Roswell’s own electrolytic filter capacitors, which were designed for audio. The fuse and fuse holder are upgraded to gold-plated, German-made parts.
The mic benefits from the company’s ‘relentless’ programme of upgrading its designs, incorporating a transparent NOS military-spec input capacitor and a copper-foil output capacitor made specifically for this model. Both the mic and PSU represent two years’ R&D, during which countless components were auditioned, or in some cases, custom designed and manufactured.
Every Aztec microphone and power supply is built, burned in, and tested in Roswell’s Northern California workshop. Roswell ships the Aztec, power supply, shockmount, Gotham/Neutrik XLR7 cable, and AudioQuest IEC power cord (available for US/Canadian NEMA 5-15P outlets, UK/Ireland IEC Type G outlets, and EU IEC Type E outlets), in an aluminium flightcase.
