Gear Hunter

Aston - AST-STARLIGHT/P Matched Pair Condenser Mics

Description

Aston's Starlight is the first ever laser targeting pencil microphone, allowing for recall of mic position in studio use, and incredibly quick and easy set up in live applications. This truly astonishing microphone also showcases Aston's unique variable voice switching for sound contouring, a nearly indestructible build quality, their signature sintered head, and Aston's, now famous, tumbled 100% stainless steel chassis.

The Starlight features a 20mm cardioid capsule hand-picked by a panel of more than 50 top producers in double blind listening tests conducted during 2016. When purchased as a stereo pair, Aston also includes a stereo mounting bar and two custom mic clips in the bundle.

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. Its a worlds 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 but AST has taken the technology a step or 2 further than ever before. They 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 nanometres thickness to achieve near perfect acoustic porosity. In addition the head is virtually indestructible, so like all Aston mics, 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 chose 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 Starlights price point.

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


Details

Transducer Type: Capacitor
Acoustic Operating Principle: Pressure Gradient
Directional Polar Pattern: Cardioid
Frequency Response: 20Hz 20kHz (+/- 10dB)
Equivalent Noise Level: 15dB A-Weighted
Sensitivity at 1kHz into 1kohm: 42.1mV/Pa
Maximum SPL for THD 0.5%: 130dB/ 140dB/ 150dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (rel. 94dB SPL): 79dB A-Weighted
Pad Switch: -20dB/-10dB/0dB
Low-Cut Filters: 80Hz, 140Hz
48 Volt Phantom power (+/- 4 Volts) is required for operation