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Aston Microphones Origin

Cardioid Condenser Microphone

The Aston Origin is a large diaphragm, fixed-cardioid, transformerless condenser microphone, designed and assembled in the UK.

The mic has a large-diaphragm, center-terminated capsule. The capsule is made in China, selected and tested in England. During testing, Aston claims the capsules have an approximately 80% rejection rate.

The Origin’s stainless steel body has a number of unique features, including a metal body that is tumbled for four hours to pre-age it, thus eliminating the need to be painted. In lieu of a traditional grille or headbasket, the Aston Origin - as well as its sister mic, the Spirit - has a stainless steel flexible mesh-like fabric as a pop filter, surrounded by a “wave spring”, also made from stainless steel. The mesh can be removed and cleaned with water when necessary.

The wave spring, besides being visually distinctive, is Aston’s solution to microphone grills that get dented and deformed on impact. The honeycomb-shaped wave spring is designed to be flexible, deforming on impact but reforming to its original shape.

On the bottom of the mic body is a zinc plate with integral threads, designed for direct stand mounting with no additional shock mount needed. Despite the zinc being a soft metal and prone to crossthreading, the design of the threads makes that unlikely. Still, if crossthreading becomes a problem, Aston will replace the bottom plate of the mic at no charge.

Sonically, as indicated by the frequency chart, the mic has a slight rolloff below 100Hz, a flat low mid-range, and a gentle rise in the high end, starting at 4kHz and rising to +5db at 10kHz. Users report that the mic has a neutral sound that is somewhat flattering to the source:

Sound On Sound

[…]the Origin’s tonality comes across as subjectively natural with good clarity, a sense of weight and a lack of harshness[…]

The Origin has a -10db switched pad and an 80Hz low cut filter switch. It is sold in a padded cardboard box.

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The mic was released in 2015.

Specifications

Pickup Patterns	Pads & Filters
CHART Cardioid (23.7 mV/Pa; 20-20,000Hz)	Pad: -10db (Via Switch) Filter: 80Hz Roll Off (Via Switch)

Capsule Dimensions	Impedance	SPL/Noise
Diaphragm diameter: 25.4mm	n/a	Max SPL: 127 dB Self-noise: 18.0 dB(A)

Weight	Length	Max Diameter	Interface(s)
449g (15.84oz)	n/a	n/a	3-pin XLR male (1)

Power Specifications
Requires phantom power Phantom voltage: 48v

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