Rich:
Mark Levinson told me that he used standard 1/2" B&K 4163 capsules w/ 200V polarization and "modified' 2804 battery powered supplies. So, no RF circuitry was involved in that setup. These are omni-patterned, like the DPA mics many prefer, and lend themselves to widely spaced placement for recording ensembles. Kostas Metaxas famously used 1/4" instrumentation capsules for many of his Stellamaster recordings, sacrificing S/N (i.e. self-noise) for the "speed" he got with 100kHz frequency response.
Of course microphone choice/placement is an art and there are many who do not enjoy the results from these omnis. I happen to like the open sound of the 1" instrumentation capsules myself and have long wished that mic selections would be more carefully documented for commercial releases.
Here's what one of your links had to say --
Nunn tried many different microphones. In the early days, he used condenser microphones from Stephens Tru-Sonic, Neumanns from Germany, and others. He tried modifying commercially-built equipment. He was never entirely satisfied with the results and finally, around 1960, he built his own condenser microphones. They had small diaphragms to keep the system resonant frequency well above the range of audibility. The vibrating diaphragm frequency-modulated an RF signal, with the cables of a fixed length as part of an RF tuned circuit. After Nunn's death they were sold.
In addition to the DPA and various B&K (and other instrumentation mics) out there, Josephson makes the Series 6 microphone body that uses the 1/2" capsules and is 48V phantom powered. It would be interesting to make some recordings with the various sorts of microphones using these capsules to see if there are any notable differences.
Mark Stahlman
New York City
