A hand-tested 6922 tube, nestled behind our premium European capsule, forms the heart of this beast. The housing, familiar from a famous national brand of industrial-strength flashlight, was chosen because everyone at one time or another has sung along into a flashlight or a hairbrush, and being that we're audio nerds with questionable grooming habits, none of us own hairbrushes. The fact that this housing is physically beautiful, extremely rugged, and acoustically dead might have had something to do with it too.

The MM-2006 features a 20db attenuator on the body of the mic as well as a continuously variable pattern selector on the custom-built external power supply. From omni to cardioid to figure-eight, the response and rejection of this mic are nothing short of superb, making the task of placement closer to sonic surgery than the educated guesswork it too often is. We have also strived to ensure that even if you don't have one of our matched pairs, any MM you pick up will behave virtually identically to any other.

Users have bombarded us with happy cliches like "Incredibly detailed and musical," "Sacrifices neither warmth nor clarity," "Anything you put in front of it just becomes huge," and our favorite: "Would be a bargain at three times the price." Probably the truest cliche of all, though, is that talking about sound is like dancing about architecture. So, we recommend you get your hands around one. Use it in any application next to your current favorite, or use it in ways that break the rules, and compare the results. The MM-2006 is certainly not cheap, nor is it even close to the most expensive end of the current market. Once you track with it, though, we're confident that you'll agree there is no better value on the planet.

Available in black, dark red, and electric blue. Twin-capsule stereo units may be built to order.