At Amago Audio, we excel in crafting some of the most accurate condenser microphones in the world. Our team of skilled audio and electronics engineers, fueled by an obsession for detail, has developed a new generation of microphones that redefine performance standards. Our cutting-edge designs enhance key parameters like bandwidth,phase response, dynamic range, noise and acoustic integrity, delivering unmatched clarity and precision. Why is a precise microphone so important? Similar to how a high-quality canvas is critical for creating a masterpiece, capturing sound with utmost clarity is key to producing professional recordings. Many conventional condenser microphones struggle with issues like boominess due to excessive proximity effect, unnatural off-axis coloration, sluggish impulse response, and sensitivity to handling noise. While audio post-processing can refine and enhance, it cannot fully remedy a flawed initial capture. At Amago Audio, we also believe that outstanding sound should be accessible to all. That's why we’ve broken away from outdated pricing models, making premium recording gear more affordable. By using Amago Audio’s Microphones, you ensure your recordings are built on a solid foundation, unlocking endless creative possibilities and preserving the highest sound fidelity in your signal chain.
Ultra High
Bandwidth
Acoustic Research
Research has shown that while humans may not hear pure tones above 20 kHz, they can detect timing differences as small as 6 microseconds, equivalent to a bandwidth of around 167 kHz. Studies by Moore (2003) and Green & McGill (2016) emphasize that high bandwidth is key to capturing accurate timing information, essential for preserving detail and clarity. Additionally, Houtsma and Goldstein (1984) found that expanding bandwidth beyond 20 kHz enhances the ability to capture important transient details, crucial for lifelike audio reproduction. At Amago Audio, we applied these findings to our microphone designs, ensuring they deliver exceptional timing accuracy, resulting in a more immersive and spatial audio experience for the listener.
System Bandwidth
System Bandwidth Degradation Most audio analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) employ a sigma-delta topology, typically setting their anti-aliasing filters to a bandwidth of 20 kHz. When the sampling rate is increased from 48 kHz to 192 kHz, the change primarily affects the output rate and not the cutoff frequency of the anti-aliasing filter.
It’s often overlooked that pairing a conventional 20 kHz microphone with a 20 kHz anti-aliasing filter results in an overall system bandwidth reduction to around 14 kHz due to the cascading bandwidth principle. Yes, that's 14 kHz, which you can verify here.
To prevent this substantial bandwidth degradation, utilizing microphones with ultrasonic bandwidth is crucial. Such microphones ensure that the entire system bandwidth is limited by only one single device, ideally the anti-aliasing filter itself. Conventional microphones suffer from outdated designs and struggle to keep up with modern advancements in sampling rates, leading to a compromise in audio depth and detail. Our high-bandwidth microphone technology is engineered to overcome these limitations, ensuring that you get the best out of your full system and achieve the clarity and precision needed for exceptional, high resolution audio recordings. al, high resolution audio recordings.
Rise Time and Smearing
Rise time measures how fast your output changes in response to a fast step input. A higher bandwidth device has a faster rise time. At Amago Audio, our fastest microphones have a rise time of approximately 8.75 microseconds, which is twice as fast as 98% of microphones in the market. This rapid transient response is crucial because real world sounds are not mere tones, but rather complex impulse waveforms with ultrasonic attacks and decay phases.
A high-bandwidth microphone, like those from Amago Audio, responds rapidly to these ultrasonic attacks and recovers quickly after the decay, ensuring the utmost clarity by preventing time-domain smearing especially when multiple impulses occur in quick succession. This illustration, sourced from the Apple website, shows a typical acoustic event, such as striking a piano key
High Dynamic
Range
Our microphones offer an impressive dynamic range, from 16 dBA to 145 dBSPL, depending on the model. This wide range ensures exceptional sound capture, from the faintest whispers to the most powerful crescendos.Some companies obscure this specification by not listing the % THD at the stated SPL level, while others use electrical equivalents as input stimuli that don’t account for the capsule’s performance.At Amago Audio, our dynamic range is measured the proper way; using an acoustic stimulus applied directly to the microphone, ensuring we specify the accurate THD performance and reliability of the entire microphone as a whole.
Phase Linearity
Phase is the time delay in the arrival of different frequencies within a signal. If this delay is consistent across all frequencies, the system is said to have a linear phase, meaning it preserves the signal’s shape and avoids phase distortion.
By integrating high bandwidth with a transparent acoustic design, our microphones achieve a smooth and highly linear phase response. The high bandwidth maintains consistent delay relationships across a broader frequency range than conventional microphones, while the transparent design minimizes reflections and comb filtering. This combination effectively prevents phase distortion and time-domain smearing, preserving the captured sound’s integrity in terms of its timing and spatial characteristics.
The impulse response represents how a microphone reacts to an acoustic impulse input. It’s a crucial test for uncovering imperfections that might not appear in standard frequency response plots. It is said that everything you need to know about a Microphone resides in its impulse response.
Below is a typical impulse response comparison between our O40 microphone and a conventional 20 kHz omnidirectional microphone. The O40 demonstrates a significantly faster rise and fall time, with no ringing, while the conventional 20 kHz microphone shows a slower response and trailing oscillations due to protective grid reflections. These imperfections will combine to cause time domain smearing especially during rapid impulse sequences.
Impulse Response
Acoustic Design
A common challenge in microphone design is the use of protection grills and grids, which introduce unwanted comb filtering and smear the impulse response, compromising both sound quality and measurement accuracy.
At Amago Audio, we fully integrate our capsules into the 304 stainless steel body and use a fine, acoustically transparent stainless steel mesh at the diaphragm port. This design eliminates the need for bulky external casings, eliminating reflections and phase cancellations.
Our microphones are also equipped with hydrophobic, acoustic-grade internal fabric and external foam. When paired with an IP-rated XLR cable, purchased separately, they provide robust protection from the elements without compromising performance.
Return Policy and Warranty
Most of our distributor partners offer flexible return options as well, ensuring you can try our microphones literally risk free!