AKG D-19 (early 1960s)
Formal documentation on the AKG D-19 is thin. No service manual or company spec sheet appears to have survived in the record. What we do have is the early-1960s audio press, which shows a real and well-regarded microphone. In period sources it is usually written as the D 19 B, a dynamic cardioid aimed squarely at the serious tape enthusiast.
Audio (May 1961, p.17) documented the technical essentials. The pickup pattern is cardioid, rated down 15 dB at 180°. The frequency range is 40-16,000 Hz. A bass-cut switch keeps ambient noise and rumble out of voice recordings. Impedance options are 200 ohms or 200/50K ohms. The same piece clearly liked the microphone and called it an all-around workhorse for the tape recordist, equally at home recording family parties, swapping tape letters, or capturing a jazz group, and comfortable in the hand or on a stand.
AKG's own advertising of the period echoed that positioning. An Audio (December 1961, p.55) spread on what the company meant by quality - material, fabrication, appearance, performance - held up the D 19 B as a medium-priced dynamic directional unit. A decade later, AKG's ads boasted of a deliberate split between generations of cardioid design. They pointed to newer models like the D-124 and away from the older internal channel-work that required slots or holes along the microphone body. That puts the D-19 in the earlier school of AKG cardioid dynamics.
Known specifications from period sources:
- Type: dynamic cardioid microphone
- Pickup pattern: cardioid, rated down 15 dB at 180°
- Frequency range: 40–16,000 Hz
- Controls: bass-cut / music-speech switch
- Impedance: 200 ohms, or 200/50K ohms
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