Aston Starlight Small Diaphragm Condenser Mic - Stereo Pair

Product Description

Introducing the Aston Microphones Starlight, the world's first laser aligning small diaphragm condenser microphone. Use the integrated and bypassable laser guide to recall mic position in studio use, lightning quick setup in live applications, and ensure that in stereo positioning situations each mic is truly in its optimal position. This microphone first showcases Aston’s unique variable voice switching for sound shaping, a nearly indestructible build quality, Aston’s signature sintered head and tumbled 100% stainless steel chassis.

The Starlight features a 20 mm cardioid capsule hand-picked by a panel of more than 50 top producers in double-blind listening tests conducted during 2016.

The Laser

The addition of a Class 2 laser to the Starlight SDC, with on/off switch, allows the user to recall mic positions in the studio so set up can be easily replicated. It also means, for touring bands, that mic positions can be marked off on drums etc, and set-up becomes a breeze. It’s a world’s first and a big leap in helping to get a consistent sound whatever the situation.

Sintered Metal Head

Sintering is not new to the mic world, though seldom used. Aston has taken the technology a step or 2 further than ever before. Aston tested many thicknesses of sintered head, as well as the average size of the sinter spheres, and combined that with nickel plate which is controlled to only a few nanometers thickness to achieve near perfect acoustic porosity. In addition, the head is virtually indestructible, so like all Aston microphones, it can take any amount of studio or even live use and will never let you down.

Voice Switching

Yet another remarkable step-up in technology, performance, and cool features! The Starlight has 3 modes of operation, courtesy of some very fancy front-end filtering between the capsule and PCB. You can choose between Vintage, Modern and Hybrid settings to get the perfect tone response for your application - guitar cab, drums, strings, even vocals. Whatever the application, you’ll get a perfect fit for your music, and each setting has been carefully tuned to give superb top-flight performance, way beyond Starlight’s price point.

Chassis

Now deeply rooted as part of Aston’s beautiful engineered looks, and rugged un-killable performance, Starlight utilizes a 1.5mm solid stainless steel chassis, tumbled for up to 4 hours to achieve our signature finish. Beauty, and a beast!

Discrete Mic Amp Circuit (PCB)

Starlight employs an extremely fine-tuned discrete mic amp circuit with high-spec components, to achieve an extremely sensitive, low noise design with loads of headroom. This allows the Starlight to handle quiet or very loud sources without compromising noise or tonal performance. Crucially, the higher output level of the Starlight’s output stage allows microphone preamps to operate with lower gain, where their distortion performance is at its best. The final result is a beautifully clean and detailed sound. The Starlight’s voicing control employs inductive active filters at the front-end of the microphone circuit to alter the response of the capsule without adding any noise to the circuit. The benefit of this means that the voicing switch is effectively the equivalent of changing the capsule to achieve different tonal characteristics and frequency response.

Eco-friendly packaging

We have put our hearts and minds into creating the most beautiful performance pieces possible with each Aston product. When it comes to packaging Aston Microphones believe simplicity is king. Protective, re-useable, environmentally sensible packaging that doesn’t cost the earth.