sE Electronics Gemini II Dual-Tube Condenser Microphone

The Gemini II runs two tubes rather than one: a 12AX7 handling the capsule's impedance conversion and a 12AU7 driving the output. The point is that neither stage has to do a job it is bad at, and the result is a large cardioid vocal mic with 13 dB self-noise, 151 dB max SPL and no transformer in the signal path.

The capsule is a hand-crafted 1 1/4 inch true condenser with a gold-sputtered mylar diaphragm. A 150 Hz low-cut and a 10 dB pad are switchable on the body, and the included floor-box power supply feeds the mic. At 1180 g it needs a solid stand.