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Recently, I have been intrigued with using some of the 50+ year old Astatic crystal and dynamic microphone heads designed to plug into the Astatic G-stands. We all have at least a few old D104's hanging around, and we should appreciate them more as they really are exceptionally good for communications quality audio. But, as I have found out, some of the older Astatic's can give the newer more advanced mic's a run for their money.
Shown left to right above are my Astatic G stand (with switchable stock/amplified modes) DN-HZ dynamic, 10DA-500 dynamic, K2 and classic D104 crystals. They all have differing audio as you would expect. Of the four, the K2 seems to have the best overall audio quality and it's the oldest of the group (1936). To make the K2 work with the ICOM 7800, I had to set the preamp, as well as the mic gain, to full. From the reports I received, the K2 sounds nearly as good as my more expensive Rode through a Behringer 2496. Not bad for a 70 year old microphone? Not only does it sound great, but as you can see below, it looks great as well. The entire Astatic line is designed to fit into the G-stand. You can be sure that I am running the D104 full up in any pileup and the DNHZ, aka "The Commentator" when I want that smoooth classic sound.
1938 Astatic K2
K2 inside, dual diaphragm crystal in wood frame: 30-10,000hz @ -60db
DN-HZ high impedance dynamic mic "The Commentator" 50-10,000Hz
10DA-500: 300-3000 HZ
D104 Astatic's first microphone made in 1933
a beautiful T3 crystal 50-10,000 HZ
Turner 44x
