Karma K6 Reviews

[brandondrury]

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[MMortalAudio]

Quality: 10
It's a very sturdy housing. For the price range, its a solid 10 in my book.

Reliability: 10
I have to give this a 10, I admit I havent used very often. I primarily use it for female vocals.

Overall Rating: 10
The Karma K-6 is a fine Chinese made ribbon microphone. Unlike other Chinese ribbon mics, Karma is using superior components. I own 2 Apex microphones which have been worthless until a friend modified them for me; I can only leave it at that.

However my K-6 was working correctly right out of the box. For $200.00 I had a great ribbon mic. It wasn’t dark or muddy. It was airy, transparent, and very sensitive.

Seriously, do your home work, test, test, and retest. Or buy the K-6, I own one. It works great for vocals. It’s a very clean and transparent microphone.

Karma Microphones

www.MMDAV.com

[Madguitrst]

Quality: 7.5
Built solidly - the tolerances on the body are within expectations for a Chinese built mic.....good but not perfect (it doesn't disassemble like butter but not bad at all).

Would prefer not to have the bars on the grill but I don't know that it's effecting the sound negatively ('cause I haven't removed them yet, but might do it to one of mine).

The shock-mount is a VERY nice design - better than even some expensive shock-mounts (in design).

Mic design is Velvet-Elvis retro cool.

Packaging and presentation are very good.

Reliability: 9
Solid, not a single problem.

Overall Rating: 7.75
Mortal, be careful when you state that the K-6 uses superior components. In today's world, the topology of the K-6 would be considered inferior to the classics. You see, the K6 uses surface mounted components, the same as the new Neumanns, Rodes, the Silicon Valve Series MXL mics (which I happen to like too, especially the M3).

That said, I really like the K-6. IMO, it beats up, knocks down, and throws out of the ring a lot of today's other ribbon mics.

I got the last two of an early batch that was on sale for $150 each (when they were listed on the site for $369 each). Basically, it seems I had them in my cart for a couple of days before I pulled the trigger, and when I did, it was past the deadline (I had no idea), although it still came up as $150 each.

Cynthia Lee contacted me and asked me how I was able to *make the site* charge me only $150 when they had been back to the original price for some days (she was concerned I hacked the site - I assured her I didn't and didn't even know how to). I had no idea.....which is when we figured out it must have been the cart thingy.

Cynthia said they were out of mics from the production run but promised to make good on it, which she did (yay Karma!).

Interestingly, I wound up with two mics that sound distinctly different. I contacted them and they said no problem, send them back and we will send two from the next production run (again, yay Karma).

But then, a friend of mine pointed out how I said I really preferred one on voice with a certain preamp and how I liked other attributes of the other. So, against theoretically-conventional wisdom, and since I really was not likely to need these for stereo pairs, I trusted my ears and decided to keep my unique K-6s and haven't looked back.

I always recommend this mics to anyone who will listen.

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If I may offer a suggestion to those who review gear, maybe we can not have all 10s, like Harmony Central. otherwise, Brandon might have to go to an Olympic style rating system (9.8 from John Doe, 9.45 from his brother Harvey, 8.7 from sister Matilda - who is still figuring out which end of the mic to sing into).

[karmamics]

Madguitrst, I guess you meant Belinda Lee.

[MMortalAudio]

Originally Posted by Madguitrst

Quality: 7.5
Built solidly - the tolerances on the body are within expectations for a Chinese built mic.....good but not perfect (it doesn't disassemble like butter but not bad at all).

I've had no problems with disassembly; however I do own long screwdrivers. I purchased them from Home Depot, 8 Stanley screwdrivers for about 10 bucks. It may seem silly but I bought these screwdrivers specifically for working on microphones. I only mention this because if you work on mics frequently, these screwdrivers may prove to be useful in the future.

Would prefer not to have the bars on the grill but I don't know that it's effecting the sound negatively ('cause I haven't removed them yet, but might do it to one of mine).

This was a problem I found as well. The screen appears to act as part of the grill’s support. The screen is soldered to the grill’s frame. I don’t believe this is affecting the sound very much. I say this because they’re not using multiple layers of screen.

The shock-mount is a VERY nice design - better than even some expensive shock-mounts (in design).

Mic design is Velvet-Elvis retro cool.

Packaging and presentation are very good.

Reliability: 9
Solid, not a single problem.

Overall Rating: 7.75
Mortal, be careful when you state that the K-6 uses superior components. In today's world, the topology of the K-6 would be considered inferior to the classics. You see, the K6 uses surface mounted components, the same as the new Neumanns, Rodes, the Silicon Valve Series MXL mics (which I happen to like too, especially the M3).

When I said superior components, I was referring to the transformer and ribbon. While the transformers are not Jensen or Lundahl, they’re good enough for this price range. Unless you purchase a classic mic, I’d bet you would be hard pressed to find discrete circuitry. Even the new high end mics are probably discrete / surface mount hybrids.

That said, I really like the K-6. IMO, it beats up, knocks down, and throws out of the ring a lot of today's other ribbon mics.

I got the last two of an early batch that was on sale for $150 each (when they were listed on the site for $369 each). Basically, it seems I had them in my cart for a couple of days before I pulled the trigger, and when I did, it was past the deadline (I had no idea), although it still came up as $150 each.

Cynthia Lee contacted me and asked me how I was able to *make the site* charge me only $150 when they had been back to the original price for some days (she was concerned I hacked the site - I assured her I didn't and didn't even know how to). I had no idea.....which is when we figured out it must have been the cart thingy.

Cynthia said they were out of mics from the production run but promised to make good on it, which she did (yay Karma!).

Interestingly, I wound up with two mics that sound distinctly different. I contacted them and they said no problem, send them back and we will send two from the next production run (again, yay Karma).

But then, a friend of mine pointed out how I said I really preferred one on voice with a certain preamp and how I liked other attributes of the other. So, against theoretically-conventional wisdom, and since I really was not likely to need these for stereo pairs, I trusted my ears and decided to keep my unique K-6s and haven't looked back.

I always recommend this mics to anyone who will listen.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

If I may offer a suggestion to those who review gear, maybe we can not have all 10s, like Harmony Central. otherwise, Brandon might have to go to an Olympic style rating system (9.8 from John Doe, 9.45 from his brother Harvey, 8.7 from sister Matilda - who is still figuring out which end of the mic to sing into).

All in all I gave the K-6 straight tens for the < $200.00 price range. I've purchased quite a few ribbon mics in this range and they wouldn’t, in my opinion, compare to the K-6. The K-6 was the first ribbon mic I found useful right out of the box for under $200.00 with no modifications. I still feel secure in my all 10’s rating. Of course I’m not comparing the K-6 against a Royer R-121 mic either.

I'm glad you didn’t leave my opinion unchallenged. I appreciate and see your points of view. The forums are useless without reader/user input. Thanks!!!

[Madguitrst]

Originally Posted by karmamics

Madguitrst, I guess you meant Belinda Lee.

Yes, Belinda Lee.......Cynthia Lee is someone else I used to know........and I guess the nice thoughts just poured in my head and out of my fingers.

[Madguitrst]

Originally Posted by MMortalAudio

I still feel secure in my all 10’s rating.

There's no problem with that. I find I sometimes I feel I have to pull back on the ratings (just my own personal thing) but really, the bottom line on the K-6 is that, by far, they are my favorite ribbon for anywhere near the price.

Of course I’m not comparing the K-6 against a Royer R-121 mic either.

Yeah, but could you? Just maybe you can......

[MMortalAudio]

No, I'm sure I couldn’t, I’ve known David Royer since 1991. I also realize I’m a little biased. I actually sent a K-6 to David, courtesy of Belinda Lee.

I’m curious to see what he’ll do to it. I’m supposed to meet Dave for the 2010 NAMM. Dave is a madman when it comes to mics. Heck he made a microphone out of a SPAM can!