Pearlman Microphones Resurrects Famed "Church" Mic

Discerning recording engineers rejoice! Pearlman Microphones is proud to announce the worldwide launch of its highly anticipated "Church" mic at the 125th AES Convention in San Francisco. A meticulously faithful remake of the revered microphone initially created by Stanley Church for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the mid-'50s, the Pearlman model is the only replica truly adhering to the original schematics, including the use of the authentic Triad transformer that has been out of production for nearly half a century.

Church, who served as the famed studio's chief sound engineer during that era, produced no more than 200 of his custom vacuum tube condenser microphones strictly for in-house use at MGM. However, over the years, the rare mic's reputation and resale value have skyrocketed, with originals in decent condition fetching up to $20,000 on the vintage market.

Like its venerable predecessor, the Pearlman Church mic employs a Neumann M7 (or optional K47) capsule, hand selected GE five-star 6072 dual triode (12AY7) vacuum tube, and "new old stock" Triad transformer, which is currently exclusively being made available to Pearlman.

"The Stanley Church MGM mic is widely considered an engineer's Holy Grail delivering a vibe that is reminiscent of the best U47s and C12s," notes Dave Pearlman. "But the original mic's transformer had been unavailable until just recently, so we're now finally able to replicate the critical combination of the original capsule, tube and transformer. I'm also making each amplifier by hand, using all point-to-point, old-style wiring. So, essentially, I'm not recreating this classic legacy microphone — I'm simply continuing it."

According to Pearlman, the result is sublime. "We put this mic up next to a couple of U47s the other day and people were absolutely freaking out about how good it sounded. They couldn't believe their ears. It's not exactly the same, of course — the mic has a different sonic flavor — but it's every bit on par with the sound of those amazing mics of yesteryear, yet available at a fraction of the price."

Built into the same housing as Pearlman's popular TM-1, the new Pearlman Church microphone is equipped with a handmade power supply, custom Mogami/Neutrik tube microphone cable, heavy-duty shockmount and aluminum shipping case.

U.S. list pricing for the Pearlman Church mic is set at $4,500.00, and orders are currently being taken for these truly limited edition products, which are being hand-built by Dave Pearlman himself one at a time.

To demo the new Pearlman Church at AES, stop by booth number 1415 (shared with A-Designs Audio).