AKG CK22 (1979)
A screw-on omni capsule that turned the C451 preamp into a vocalist's friend - windscreen and all.
Overview
The CK22 is not a microphone. It is half of one. AKG built it as a screw-on capsule for the CMS modular system. The system works like this: a preamp body supplies the electronics and phantom power, and a capsule screws onto the front and sets the polar pattern. The CK22 is the omnidirectional member of the family. It was new in 1979, announced at that year's exhibition alongside a figure-of-eight sibling, the CK4.
The built-in windscreen sets it apart. AKG designed the CK22 as an omni capsule with the screen integrated rather than slipped on as an accessory, and sized the whole thing to the same diameter as the C451 preamp. A capsule that sits flush with the body it screws onto feels like one piece of gear in the hand and on the stand. AKG's own literature from the period called out the CK22 as particularly useful for vocalists. That makes sense, since an omni with a built-in screen suits a singer who is close and moving.
The capsule is compatible with the C451/2 range of preamplifiers. That is the whole reason the CK22 exists, and it is also why loose examples turn up today with no body attached. Studio Sound (June 1979, p.88) listed the capsule at £48 and the preamplifier separately at £78.30, so buyers were pricing two components, not one microphone. The same listing gave the CK22's dimensions as 140mm long by 18mm in diameter and its weight as 85g net, 360g gross. Current consumption was quoted at 5.5mA or less, to DIN 45596.
The 18mm figure explains the product. A capsule only slightly wider than the preamp behind it keeps the assembly slim, and AKG's stated intent - same diameter as the C451 preamp, useful for vocalists - follows directly from that geometry. It is a small, unobtrusive front end rather than a big studio bottle.
The CK22 was reviewed as part of a group. Studio Sound (June 1979, p.86) ran it in a seven-microphone comparison alongside the AKG C34, Electrovoice 1777 and RE20, Schoeps CMTS 501U, Sennheiser MZK 431 and Shure SM81. Sensitivity was measured using tone bursts to keep room reflections out of the numbers, and polar and frequency plots were taken anechoically in the chamber at the Polytechnic of North London. So a modular condenser capsule was measured to the same protocol as dynamics and condensers several times its size.
By the mid-1980s AKG was still describing the CMS 451 series as the yardstick for modular preamp-plus-capsule combinations, with a choice of C451 preamps, a phantom-powered C452, and the newer C460B body - all fed by the CK series capsules (Studio Sound, November 1985, p.85). The CK22 belongs to that capsule range. It is still findable, and it is still useless on its own. Collectors note that the capsule is the easy half to lose and the hard half to replace. A CK22 without a C451/2 body is a part, not a microphone.
Values reflect that. Period dealer listings in the US put a used AKG 460/CK22 combination at $400 in the late 1980s, and a C451 with a CK1 capsule at $300. Those figures show what complete, working modular AKG gear fetched on the secondhand market, not a price for a bare capsule. Anyone shopping for a CK22 today should expect to be buying into the system, and should check the threads and the screen first. A dented or missing windscreen defeats the one feature AKG built the capsule around.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.