AKG D-300 Series
A three-mic family that promised studio sound on a bar stage - and, by most accounts, came close enough to make the competition nervous.
Overview
The D-300 wasn't a single microphone. It was a series of three vocal mics sharing a chassis and a design philosophy, aimed at working entertainers rather than the studio. AKG pitched the line as "studio quality live on stage." The advertising from the period is consistent about it: a unidirectional polar pattern to keep feedback and room noise down, a windscreen arrangement engineered for total elimination of pop and breath sounds, and "unequalled reproduction of both voice and music." That's marketing copy, so treat it as such. But the design decisions underneath it were real, and the trade press took the line seriously enough to give it column inches in Studio Sound (December 1979, p.87) and Mix (1980, p.25) among others.
The three microphones in the family were the D 310, the D 320 B, and the D 330 BT. The differences are the whole reason to pick one over another on the used market. The D 310 is the plain cardioid model. The D 320 B and D 330 BT step up to hypercardioid, which means a tighter pattern, better rejection, and less tolerance for a singer who wanders off-axis. The D 320 B adds a bass-only frequency contour switch. The D 330 BT has both bass and treble contour switching, which makes it the most flexible of the three and the one that got the most press attention.
The D 330 BT is where the series' engineering shows most clearly. The transducer is a modular plug-in assembly, so if it fails you replace the transducer, not the microphone. It hangs on an anti-noise elastomer mount with a hum-rejection coil and a dynamic handling-noise rejector. Around the capsule sits a stainless-steel impact-resistant outer grille, then an internal windscreen, then a second windscreen doubling as a pop filter, all protecting an internal basket. That's four layers between a loud singer and the diaphragm, which explains why these mics survived bar gigs that would have killed lesser hardware. The circular rings visible behind the mesh aren't decoration. They conceal the opening to the diaphragm rear that every cardioid needs, and the top ring unscrews so the whole thing comes apart down to the plug-in transducer. The supplied stand clip is molded from a hard but flexible rubbery plastic that one reviewer described as looking and feeling indestructible.
That reviewer was Mike Skeet, writing in Electronics & Music Maker. His verdict was that the D 330 BT had "had a lot of thought put into its design" and would likely become as long-lived and respected as the D 202. Sound Arts (May 1980, p.33) framed the whole line as a "no-compromise approach" to a musician's microphone, combining studio-grade sound with the ruggedness a touring vocalist needs.
In 1987 AKG reissued the series' aesthetic in a high-tech non-reflective black finish, aimed at stage, video, and film work where a chrome mic catching a spotlight or a camera key light is a genuine problem. The company's own copy from that period says the finish was introduced to eliminate lens flare, burnout, and smudgy fingerprints in closeups. The same advertisement positions the D-300 series alongside the D 112 kick drum mic and the C 410 headset as part of AKG's working-musician range.
By the time the series reached broadcast trade shows, AKG was presenting it as a low-cost dynamic option for broadcast use. A microphone sold to bar bands in 1979 was, a few years later, being shown to transmitter engineers as a budget-conscious professional tool.
Similar items on eBay
No exact AKG D-300 listings are live right now — these searches show current AKG and similar vintage audio gear on eBay:
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.