AKG D-190

A dynamic cardioid that worked on stage and in the studio. It was the top of AKG's medium-price range, and priced to match.

Overview

The D-190 was AKG's flagship in the medium-price bracket. A period survey of AKG's range calls the D190 dynamic cardioid the top model in that tier. It came in three different impedances and also with an on/off switch. A switch on a stage vocal mic lets the performer mute between numbers. It was an option, not a fixed feature, so the mic was configured to order.

The design leaned toward durability and easy service. The same period coverage says AKG's public-address microphones were attractively styled and of sturdy construction, built to take the rough handling performers dish out. The pencil-shaped models could be serviced on the spot, because the head detaches to give access to the capsule. That is the difference between a quick fix and shipping the thing off.

The D-190 turns up in the record in the places working microphones live. A 1972 London location-sound facility listed the D190 alongside Nagra tape recorders and a stable of studio condensers. Another 1972 studio listing pairs the D190 with Tannoy Monitor Gold loudspeakers and Quad 50 amplifiers. A mail-order price list of the era quotes the D190 at £44.97, well below the D12 at £82.92 in the same listing.

By the early 1980s the D-190 was not a fixed specification. A second entry in the same publication's 1981 buyer's guide describes the D-190E as a cardioid dynamic for speech or music performing and recording, with a frequency range of 30 to 15,000 Hz and sensitivity of −52 dBm at 200 ohms. That gives two listings with two different frequency ranges and two different sensitivity figures for what appears to be the same model. Period catalog copy was not always consistent, so anyone quoting "the" D-190 spec should say which listing they mean.

The model also appears in a 1983 dealer price list at £42. It stayed in the catalog, at roughly the same price, for years. The D-190 was not a glamour piece, but it was the mic a lot of people reached for when they needed a cardioid dynamic that could take a knock and be put right afterward.

The D-190 is a working tool, and the documentation that survives is fragmentary and sometimes contradictory. The impedance variants and the optional switch mean two examples sold as "D-190" may not be configured alike. Buyers should confirm which version they're getting. Original pricing in the £42 - £45 range across more than a decade of listings puts it above the budget models and below the studio condensers.