AKG C1000 S
A phantom-or-battery condenser with studio-grade capsules for working musicians. It's also the mic everyone loved to argue about.
Overview
The C1000 S is the microphone AKG built for people who couldn't afford to baby a condenser. It runs on 9 to 52 volts of phantom power or, when the console has no phantom to give, a plain 9-volt battery - the 6F22 type. It sips under 2 mA, so a battery lasts a long time between changes. That dual powering is the whole point of the design: a studio condenser that can go on stage, into a rehearsal room, or out to a remote session without a phantom supply in sight. Recording Engineer (December 1988, p.35) framed the C1000 as the answer to the old complaint that condensers sound great but aren't stage-first microphones, and praised its backplate transducer for clean response and freedom from handling noise.
The capsule is a multi-pickup pattern electret design. The spec sheet lists a transmission range of 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz, wide enough for voices and acoustic instruments, with the top end that makes a condenser worth owning. Open-loop sensitivity at 1 kHz is 6 mV/Pa, which is −44 dBV, and the output impedance is 200 ohms across the 20 Hz to 20 kHz band. AKG rates the permissible load at greater than 2,000 ohms, so it wants a reasonably friendly input. A low-impedance input is asking for trouble. Self-noise is quoted at 21 dBA to DIN 45412. That's quiet enough for close-miked vocals and most acoustic work, though nobody would call it a specialty low-noise room mic.
The build and environmental specs read like a touring tool, not a bench instrument. The mic is rated for −20° to +60° C and relative humidity up to 99% at 20° C, dropping to 95% at +60° C. AKG clearly expected this thing to leave the studio. The manual's repair notes describe a capsule glued to an elastic suspension with "Black Max" adhesive. Pulling a capsule usually destroys that suspension, which then has to be replaced. It's serviceable, but not friendly to the casual tinkerer.
The output is electronically balanced, and this is where the C1000 S trips people up. Pin 3 of the connector sits at signal ground and carries no audio. Pin 2 is the hot signal output. That's the opposite of the American convention, where pin 3 is treated as hot. The manual is emphatic that when you connect the mic to an unbalanced input, pin 2 must be the signal terminal with pins 1 and 3 tied to ground. The same warning applies to cables running between a phantom supply and an unbalanced input unless the supply has output transformers. Owners who wired it the "usual" way and got thin, phasey results had a miswired microphone, not a bad one.
AKG's own advertising aimed the C1000 S squarely at musicians and home-studio engineers, alongside the C3000 and C535EB. It was billed as a rugged dual-pattern microphone for stage or studio, with shock isolation to cut physically transmitted noise. Sound and Communication (February 1990, p.19) described it as a multi-pickup-pattern electret design running from an internal 9-volt battery. By the mid-2000s the mic was still in the catalog at £99.99, and the PB 1000 Presence Boost Adapter added a 5 dB high-frequency peak in cardioid, for pushing presence on vocals and snare.
The C1000 S is a workhorse condenser priced for the working musician. The 21 dBA noise floor and 50 Hz bottom mean it won't rival a large-diaphragm studio condenser on a quiet source, and the fixed capsule and pattern limitations keep it from being a do-everything mic. But for the money, and for the ability to run off a battery when nothing else will, it earned its place in thousands of project studios and live rigs. Collectors note that the earliest series carried the part designation 2331Z0001, and that AKG later revised the design into MKII and LED versions with different internal assembly. The repair procedure for the original requires disengaging a latch through the connector aperture, while the later versions simply push out as a complete assembly. That matters if you're buying used and expect to service it.
The C1000 S is not a precious vintage object, and it was never meant to be. It's a tool that was built well enough to still be in use decades later.
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