S-47 Microphone Kit

$ 369.00

The S-47 is a world-class microphone in DIY kit form. It includes our renowned transformerless circuit, RK-47 capsule, microphone body, and swivel mount.

Applications

Vocals
Acoustic guitar (especially great for small-body, thin-sounding, or brightly voiced instruments that benefit from enhanced weight and body)
Electric guitar cabinet
Drum overheads (recommended: build the internal pad option)
Drum room
Strings

Circuit Details

The internal switch can be configured at build time as either a Cardioid/Omni polar pattern switch, or as a 10dB pad. All parts for both options are included.

The circuit kit is in its 3rd generation. It is based on the Schoeps transformerless design, with multiple upgrades, improvements, and optimizations. We use high-grade parts throughout the circuit: the JFET is a NOS Siliconix part, which we manually and individually bias in our shop for every kit. Output transistors are Hitachi. Capacitors are low-noise, high fidelity parts from Wima and Panasonic.

The microphone has high sensitivity -- 35mV/Pa -- with low self-noise (<10dBA). It is fantastic on male vocals, strings, percussion, guitar cab.

If you want a 3-pattern version of the S-47 microphone, see the new S3-47 kit.

Recent Reviews

Paul White, senior editor for Sound On Sound Magazine, built an S-12 (which uses the same circuit as the S-47) and concluded that "it could certainly give some of the boutique mics out there a run for their money." That's high praise for a $329 kit.

"A test recording of speech revealed a warm, smooth character without any obvious presence boost... Plenty of HF detail is present, but not in that splashy, in-your-face way that some mics present it, which suggests that it is likely to be kind to female vocals."

Read the full review here.

Here's a video review from Jeannot Kuenzel, with snapshots of an S-12 build (again, using the same circuit as the S-47). It contains a compelling demonstration of the mic's remarkably low noise floor:

Visual Color Choices

The S-47 body is made of aluminum. It is painted black. The front of the mic is indicated by the MicParts diamond logo badge.

You can chose an alternative color from our custom color options, by adding the color to the same order as the S-47 kit.

How to Build a Microphone

Every kit includes a comprehensive, full-color manual -- 30+ pages of color photographs with arrows and diaphragms and bullet-pointed steps. Customers tell us our documentation is the best they've ever seen.

Nonetheless, we do NOT recommend this as a first-time DIY audio project. Build a stomp box or DI first, or install one of our capsules into an inexpensive condenser. Learn how to solder without spending $300 on a premium microphone kit. And then come back for this -- you won't regret it.

See also this video from one of our customers, Chris Goode, who filmed his entire S-series build (at the time called the "RA-23") on an iPhone and made a video of the result:

What's in the box?

The S-47 body and chassis, pedestal mount for capsule, brass mesh grille, pre-wired XLR3M insert, machine screws for assembly.
Hard mount for the microphone
MP-V57 PCB kit: our custom US-made circuit boards, with 100% of components needed to build the circuit, including pre-cut and tinned OFC silver/teflon hookup wire.
RK-47 capsule, with our proprietary "supersaddle" mount and all necessary screws and wires.
Full-color, comprehensive installation guide/manual.

Recommended Shockmount

We recommend the Roswell Pro Audio "Cutaway™" shockmount, available exclusively here.

What about matched pairs?

We've sold many matched pairs of the S-47 kit. Just add two of these kits to your cart, and then add the matching option. We will supply your two S-47 kits with a matched pair of RK-47 capsules.