Arabella

Common name: BeesNeez Arabella

Production Status: In production

The Arabella is a tube condenser microphone, which shares lineage with a few classics, namely the Neumann U47 and M49, and has been designed to take the best of each to make an extremely versatile condenser microphone. The transformer in the Arabella is a BeesNeez 6.5:1 toroidal transformer, handmade in Australia. The core for this transformer is made from Ni78 Permalloy and encased in a 0.2mm plastic toroidal casing to protect the windings. The benefits of using a toroidal transformer are many, though with benefits come difficulties. If a toroidal transformer is made well, its specifications are simply unbeatable, as the entire core is encased by the windings leaving no area open for leakage. However, the core must be large enough to ensure it doesn’t saturate too early. The core size, though quite large, still make a reasonably compact toroidal transformer that is perfect for this microphone. Its characteristics are very smooth with no frequency ring or non-linear response within the listening curve. The capsule in the Arabella is the BeesNeez K7 capsule, which is a perfect replica of the K47. This is a single back-plate capsule made famous by Georg Neumann & Co. The difficulties in reproducing a capsule like this is that it has both blind and through holes. The correlation between these holes controls the pattern via absolute distance and is quite mathematically complex due to having only a single back-plate. Other capsules with two back-plates are much easier for pattern control in the design phase as the standing wave end point is a solid object [the opposing back-plate] rather than a moving diaphragm. The diaphragm is 6 micron DuPont. The tube in the Arabella is a Russian 6ZH8. This is the Russian equivalent of the American 6SJ7 or the Special Red 5693 vacuum tube. The microphone includes a swivel mount connector and lead, producers series power supply and wooden box.