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Aston Microphones Starlight

Cardioid Pencil Condenser Microphone

The Aston Starlight is an end-address small-diaphragm condenser microphone with a laser aiming device attached.

Like other Aston mics, the Starlight was designed and is assembled in the UK. The mic’s capsule and the laser are of Asian origin.

The microphone’s most unique feature is a phantom powered laser aiming device, attached to the microphone body. When switched on, the laser can be used to place the microphone in a consistent position session to session or performance to performance. However, the laser only indicates aim, not distance from source.

The Starlight has the same tumbled stainless steel body as Aston’s Spirit and Origin microphones, but it has a different headbasket. One again eschewing traditional headbasket designs with the Starlight, Aston have opted to use a sintered head, made with exactly the same process that was used on the AKG D190E. The sintered head is physically stronger and more durable than a traditional grill. Sintering also has acoustic advantages: because of the acoustically linear nature of a sintered surface, due to the way the tiny ball bearings randomly scatter sound waves, the Starlight is flat off-axis to 30º.

There are several switches on the body of the Starlight, including a pad (0db/-10db/-20db) and a low cut (0Hz/80Hz/140Hz). There is also a voicing switch with three options: vintage, modern, and hybrid, indicated by circles on the side of the microphone. Vintage (low bump with rolled off highs) is a filled circle, Modern (boosted highs) is an empty circle, and Hybrid (low bump with unaffected highs) is half-filled. The voices are electronically determined by an inductor filtering circuit situated directly behind the capsule.

The Starlight is sold as either a single microphone (US $499.00) with a mic clip and foam windscreen, or as a stereo matched pair (US $899.00).

The stereo kit comes with two Rycote-designed shock mounts and a stereo bar, as well as two mic clips and two windscreens.

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The mic was released in 2017.

Specifications

Pickup Patterns	Pads & Filters
CHART Cardioid (42.1 mV/Pa; 20 - 20,000 Hz)	Pad: -20db / -10db (Via Switch) Filter: 80Hz / 140Hz low cut (Via Switch)

Capsule Dimensions	Impedance	SPL/Noise
Diaphragm diameter: 20mm	n/a	Max SPL: 130 dB Self-noise: 15.0 dB(A)

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

Power Specifications
Requires phantom power Phantom voltage: 48v

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