Made in Italy by the Geloso company, very large Italian supplier of electronic components and finished goods.
Here is a link providing a lot of information about Geloso and its founder
http://www.geloso.net/pagineEN/ENhomepagecss.asp?MyVar=homepage
Geloso Dynamic Microphone
Model: M68
Manufactured around mid to late 1960's
We kept these around the studios "for experimentation" - specifically instrument miking. The audio is pretty good but the case used is a shocker in our opinion. These were obviously made with the budget concious buyer in mind - see my comments about the case further down in this advertisement.
The dynamic element is very solidly made and an interesting construction. Diaphragm is 30mm diameter, pickup coil is 15mm diameter and a hefty magnetic creating the magnetic field. There is some talk around online that the capsules may in fact be AKG or Beyer sourced originally - I just don't know.
No impedance matching transformer, output goes straight to the unusual 4 pin connector via the ON-OFF switch, when OFF it places a 220 Ohm resistor across the output terminals of the socket - no clicks no pops just no audio when it is turned off.
Nominal impedance of the element is 250 Ohm
I saw a supplier online selling these microphones for A$60+
So what lets the microphone down?
Nice dynamic insert, nice feeling barrel and very secure output connection at the base but fair go, the body is not as it appears!!
Geloso (Italy) made high end audio equipment and then they made budget gear - this microphone is in the latter. The dynamic element looks and sounds great but the body construction really lets it down.
The capsule is very interesting design but is totally unlabelled although I had another of these capsules which I discarded because the mylar diaphragm was damaged, it was stamped into the metal BREVETTATO which means Patented, but that's it - no patent number or any other ID
It feels solid, is fairly heavy for it's size and it looks like a nice stainless steel/chrome body finish, but its NOT!!
When cleaning them, I noticed a ripple in the "stainless steel or chrome". I then removed a small section around the ON-OFF switch - the body is actually a solid PLASTIC of some kind which has then had this metallic film applied to it! It's looks like a solid chrome piece but it is really composite plastic/metal film in nature although still heavy to hold at 150g.
The ID labelling strip and the ON-OFF switch decals are just stick on - pretty amateurish quite frankly.
HOWEVER, the top hat assembly/grill and connector ring at the base are SOLID metal so this microphone is a composite of metal and plastic!
The head has a nice heavy metal grille with internal fine "spit" filters and rubber rings etc - all are removable/changeable.
The head has little holes all around it (black background) but these are decoration only - there is no way that sound waves can get to the element via those holes.
This is a front only capture area, cardioid pattern (heart shaped pattern) no side lobes, move to the side and audio sensitivity drops dramatically.
However, we wouldn't suggest using this microphone for stage vocal work - the body is simply not robust enough in our opinion.
The output from the microphone is via a special 4 pin male connector, the pins are arranged in a square shape and it has an internal thread for the matching socket lock. The required plug is a Geloso product, marked as GELOSO MADE IN ITALY.
I have spare parts for these Geloso microphones advertised separately
The output is balanced, twp pins being hot and cold and the other two pins are earthed to the case via internal pressure contact copper springs.
I have made up some adapter cables to suit but these are NOT included with this microphone, my thinking is that it may well be that the buyer of a microphone will ditch the case and just use the capsule in another housing, in which case there would be no need for an adapter cable.
If you need the adapter cable, it is listed separately.
Measures: 120mm length x 35mm diameter (top) & 22mm at the base. Central area where you would mount the microphone on a clip is approximately 33-34mm diameter.
Weight is 150g but remember this is quite a bit smaller than your "standard" microphone, it feels "substantial" to hold.
COSMETIC CONDITION:
** BODY FLAW DEFINITION **
Where the "metallic film" has moved in relation to the substrate creating a small bubble or ripple
These are not dents or scratches.
I have 2 of these microphones, each is numbered in the photograph
1: Nice condition, one small body flaw, no marks - nice microphone overall
2: Nice condition, a couple of small body flaws , dodgy looking ON-OFF decal, no marks - nice microphone overall
TESTING:
BOTH microphones have been retested (they have been in storage for five years or so) - both are functioning fine, audio is nice and clean.
Great for the audio experimenter, in that continuous endeavour to find that "sweet" sound when recording.
Our sound engineer played around with these years ago, he thought they were useful from time to time in achieving the sound he wanted.
