Microtech Gefell Generation 4

Drawing on their established 300‑series pencil mics, Microtech Gefell have created a small but potent modular range.

When his Berlin factory was damaged in an air raid in 1943, Georg Neumann set up a new plant in the small Thuringian town of Gefell. At the end of the Second World War, this area became part of the communist German Democratic Republic. Neumann himself moved back to Berlin, where the Neumann company remain to this day, while the Gefell factory became a leading supplier of audio equipment to the Soviet bloc. Since returning to private ownership after German reunification, Microtech Gefell have remained one of the most important manufacturers of studio and measurement mics in the world, with a truly vast range of products.

Despite their heritage and their undoubted quality, though, Gefell mics still seem to fly under the radar, and don’t always get the attention that’s accorded to names such as Neumann or Shure. In typically understated fashion, Microtech Gefell managed to launch an entire new range at this year’s NAMM Show without many people noticing! But now that they’re here, the Generation 4 series looks to offer a compelling alternative to modular mics from the likes of Schoeps, Neumann and DPA.

Mix & Match

Microtech Gefell have always offered modular microphone systems, and for many years the workhorse of their line was the MV692 body, which could accept both large‑ and small‑diaphragm capsules. That is long discontinued, but for the last 30 years or so, their extensive range of small‑diaphragm mics has included the SMS2000 modular system, with separate capsules and preamp bodies. This modular range has coexisted peacefully with the somewhat more affordable M300, M310, M320 and M330 fixed‑capsule cardioid, supercardioid, omnidirectional and subcardioid pencil mics, as well as a selection of omni mics with diaphragms made from rolled nickel, a technology that is now pretty much unique to Microtech Gefell.

The M3xx models remain current products, but the SMS2000 has been discontinued in favour of a new and much more compact modular system. At launch, the Generation 4 range comprises six core products. The MV400X and MV400L are transformerless, phantom‑powered, solid‑state impedance converters. The two are electrically and functionally identical, but whereas the X is equipped with a conventional XLR socket, the L has a Lemo connector. The main advantage of this is miniaturisation: the MV400L is a mere 46.5 x 21mm, and the cable itself has a very unobtrusive visual profile. Though not quite as small, the MV400X too is impressively compact, at 57 x 21mm; for reference, the M300 is 130mm long and an SMS2000 body plus capsule 166mm. The bodies are complemented by four capsules designated the M40, M41, M42 and M43. These are, respectively, cardioid, supercardioid, omnidirectional and subcardioid or ‘wide cardioid’, and are screwed on in the usual way, with electrical contact made by two sprung gold contacts. All are externally polarised, small‑diaphragm capsules, and they use a conventional gold‑sputtered Mylar diaphragm.

As usual with Gefell, the core products are also supported by a range of...