This year marks the 20th anniversary of Placid Audio, a company founded by Mark Pirro with the aim of producing a range of microphones with a distinctive lo-fi sonic character. To celebrate the milestone, the company have announced the upcoming release of the Copperphone AV20, an updated and improved version of their most popular model to date.

Housed in a copper enclosure, the microphone purposely operates within a limited bandwidth and offers a sound similar to that of an AM radio or telephone, allowing the microphone to be used to deliver creative effects, or to provide additional character when used in combination with other full-range models. The sound is achieved through a combination of a sealed transducer and some on-board filtering circuitry, both of which help to accentuate upper-mid-range frequencies whilst attenuating both high- and low-frequency sounds. 

…the microphone purposely operates within a limited bandwidth and offers a sound similar to that of an AM radio or telephone…

The company say that although this latest offering delivers a similar overall sound to the original model, the tone differs due to the sealed transducer (its predecessor employed a rear ported design). A new Dark Mode switch has also been added, which engages a second-order low-pass filter to further restrict the bandwidth, and the output is also 8dB higher than the original thanks to the inclusion of a step-up transformer.

The Copperphone AV20 is a dynamic microphone, and features a cardioid polar pattern. Its frequency response is quoted as 200Hz to 8.2kHz, which is then reduced to 200Hz to 5.5kHz with the Dark Mode switch engaged.

The body design incorporates a double mesh pop screen grille, and comes with a durable aluminium mounting bracket.

Pricing & Availability

The Copperphone AV20 is available to pre-order now, priced at $350.