Oktava MK012

Hi David:

I was just getting ready to put up that link. Don't forget also, even if you buy a legitimate Russian made Oktava, if you buy it from a non-authorized or gray market importer, you will have either limited or no warranty/service.

These mics do have serial numbers.

Dan
 
grant-o said:
Does anybody know what shipping costs to Canada? I'm on the verge of buying one.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that depend on who you buy from and where they are in the U.S.?

Don't forget the customs fees you'll have to pay...even so, it still may be cheaper to buy from south...especially with the dollar being worth what it is.
 
Where I got my Oktava MK 012

Where I got my Oktava MK 012

Hello...

I bought an Oktava MK-012last year (the real deal) from Red Square Audio. Cost me usd $189.80 with shipping to California. Great mic, by the way.

634 Odell Street
Madison, WI

redsquareaudio@sbcglobal.net

tel: 608 438-8541

Shoot them an email or phone and see if they can help you.

Be well, all....Jeffro
 
Hi Phil:

I apologize for the delays, I have been shooting a lot. I can only work on the article when I have down time. Also, wrangling review copies of the last two mics, the Neumann KMR81i and the Sennheiser MKH-416 has been very time consuming. I received the Neumann on Monday so I am doing the tests on it today but Sennheiser has told me that they may not be able to provide an MKH-416 for quite a while. They have a certain amount of review copies that go out and until they are returned, I can't get one. I would ideally like to finish and publish the article by the end November.

I may just finish the article without the MKH-416, I did do the MKH-60 and MKH-50 but I know that I will receive ten e-mails a day asking why I didn't review the MKH-416. I could rent or borrow one but all of the other samples have been factory fresh. If the borrowed/rental mic doesn't perform well, that would be unfair to the manufacturer since we don't know how old or abused a rental or borrowed mic would be.

If you have any specific questions about certain mics, feel free to e-mail me directly blfilms@mac.com. The article is 26 pages so far and that's just basic review, it doesn't include these last two mics and any commentary. BTW, for sound samples, do you have any suggestions for compressed audio formats for the web that will retain enough sound quality to make quantitative judgements but are small enough for Ken's website to host and be practical? I would like to put them all up as basically uncompressed .AIFFs but with the amount of material 12 mics x 5 test each, each clip averages about :30, that would be close to 30 minutes of 48KHz, 16 bit .AIFFs. I think too much for Kens servers, especially if there is high web traffic.

MPEG 4? WAVs? Crunched .AIFFs? I am not enough of a web guru to know which codec will be the best for sound quality?

All the best,

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
Guys:

If I may interject, I obtained the Okatava MK-012 directly from Ken Heaton of Oktava USA for my upcoming microphone review/test/article. Okatava USA is the only authorized importer of Okatavas in the U.S. The reason I mention this is because there are a number of cheap Chinese counterfeit Oktavas out there. If you are going to buy an Oktava, make sure that you get the real thing.

Not saying that The Sound-Room is selling Chinese knock-offs, I would have no idea. But if you definitively want a genuine Russian authorized-to-sell-in-the-USA by the Russian manuacturer of the MK-012, talk to Ken Heaton at Oktava USA.

According to Okatava USA, there are only five authorized Okatava sources in the U.S. and The Sound-Room is not one of them.

Dan Brockett
Click to expand...

The facts have been incorrectly identified and in doing so a fine reseller, The Sound Room, may have been slighted. I'm certain this was an oversight on your part and not intentional.

The evidence on the web page of the company that you have identified as the "only authorized importer of Oktava " in fact only claims to be "an official representative of Oktava", not THE ONLY representative.

You also mentioned that you have been told there are only five US dealers that sell the "Real Deal". Again, there are only five US dealers that Oktava USA sells to and nowhere on their site does it say that these are the "Only" or even use the word "authorized" dealers. The web site simply says, "Where to shop for genuine Oktava microphones in North America..."

As I understand it, Paul at the Sound Room has a direct relationship with the factory in Russia.

I can certainly understand that Oktava USA wants people to think that they are the only place to get a real Oktava and may have said so to you but even they don't make this claim in public.

I suspect that in reality, they import and resell Oktavas from Russia but they may not necessarily be the ONLY or OFFICIAL importer in the US and since they don't claim to be, we should not come to the conclusion that they are without hearing from Paul.

I could be wrong about Paul and the Sound Room, but maybe he can get in here and clear the issue up. But at this point, if I was going to buy another Oktava, I'd go right back to The Sound Room with full confidence that I was buying "The Real Deal" and I'd continue to suggest that others do so as well until Pauls says differently.
 
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Hi Kelly:

I did not intend to slight The Sound Room, I would never make any claims about a retailer unless I had investigated the retailer myself.

1. True, the letter does state that Oktava USA are an official representative of JSC Oktava, Russian Federation/Tula. This, combined with conversations I have had with Oktava USA led me to believe that Oktava USA is the factory authorized distributor in the U.S. If you notice, Oktava USA is not a retailer but a distributor. Oktava USA also offers a U.S. warranty. What kind of warranty do The Sound Room and Red Square Audio offer on their MK-012s?

2. Based upon the review copies of the MK-012 that I received from Okatva USA, I still stand by the assertion that in this country, if you want to know that the Oktava you are buying, is in fact a real Russian made in Tula Oktava, you should purchase from one of Oktava USA's five dealers. The review copies had all of the necessary written certification, test charts and engineer signatures that substantiate that they are the genuine article. All literature and documentation included with the mic was in Cyrillic, which I had friend translate (not all of it verbatim) but enough to realize that it wasn't a B.S. Chinese counterfeit of the documentation.

3. I wrote all of this because in the course of reearching my article, I have met three people who have bought counterfeit Okatava MK-012 mics and I suspect that there are many other copies on the U.S. market that unsuspecting buyers will end up with. Some won't care but if you do care, you need to do your research. It is my purpose as a writer to do as much of this research as I can for the reader.

4. If you carefully read my statements, you can see that I do not accuse The Sound Room of anything. For all I know, Paul of The Sound Room does have a good relationship with the factory in Tula and he does import them himself directly to sell through The Sound Room. If so, that is a highly unusual situation. I do have several years of retail and consumer audio experience and years of dealing with U.S. distributors. Can you imagine the same situation with Sennheiser or Neumann? I dealt with Sennheiser USA, so I made the natural assumption that Sennheiser USA is the authorized distributor of Sennheiser products in the U.S. I can't imagine other retailers here in the U.S. bringing over their own Sennheiser product from Germany and selling it here and having that stand up in court. Then again, this is a Russian manufacturer and business is done differently in Russia. Perhaps this is no big deal to them that they have a U.S. distributor but also sell directly to various small retailers in this country. I know that would not fly with any of the German or Japanese audio manufacturers but perhaps with Oktava, that is business as usual? As someone formerly in the audio retail business, I know that would have been a disaster in marketing, branding, warranty service, advertising co-op dollars, etc. but perhaps this is how JSC Oktava operates? If so, they should realize that this approach leads to confusion, counterfeit products becing sold as genuine and I am sure, animosity between the various retail outlets.

There are really only two issues at the bottom line here...

A. If you buy an Oktava in this country, make sure that it is a genuine article. You can do this by substantiation of the documentation included with the mic or with checking serial numbers with JSC Oktava or Oktava USA.
B. Make sure that the retailer you buy it from will honor the factory warranty and can provide authorized service. Buying the mic from whomever is one issue and if you are careful, you will end up with the genuine article. But who will support and service your mic is another issue.

Other than these two points, the rest sounds like politics the more I think about it.

I would agree with your plan to buy Oktava's from The Sound Room IF they provide ALL of the factory documentation, that they are the genuine article and that The Sound Room will warranty the mics. I would only buy an Oktava from The Sound Room or Red Square Audio if they include a written, certified warranty. I would also be curious as to whom The Sound Room and Red Square Audio say will perform any warranty repair on their Oktavas. Do they do the repairs themselves or send them to the factory in Tula?

The main purpose of my alerts is to make sure that my fellow DVXers and my readers don't get ripped off, not to accuse any dealers of anything because I have not dealt with The Sound Room or Red Square Audio or any of the dozens of other Ebay sellers and audio retailers. Caveat Emptor. Because of various unusual circumstantial factors, I would be extremely cautious about buying an Oktava without doing extensive research and receiving written guarantees of authenticity and of warranty.

There may be some politics at work here that none of us are aware of between Oktava USA an everyone else in the U.S. that sells Oktavas.

Dan
 
Dan,

I appreciate your explanation and spirit of your reply, so I hope you can understand this reply and my issues that are still a little confounding to me. You indicated that you are doing research for an article. In this research you indicated that you have come to a concluion about what retailers are the only company to buy a real Oktava from and what company is the only real importer.

You also indicated that you have no intent in slighting the Sound Room.

In my humble view, any research about the issue of what Oktavas are genuine and who really sells the Russian made mikes would have included researching one of the most widely known sources for obtaining an Oktava.

You plainly stated that there are ONLY five places to buy a Russian factory backed Oktava and stated that the Sound Room was not one of them. From your statements it seems clear that you did not contact anybody at the Sound Room and made an assumption that since the Sound Room was not on the list from Oktava USA, that Paul could not be selling mikes that have factory warranties.

This part troubles me. Even if you did not intend to slight Paul, you did him and yourself and your readers a disservice by not checking. Your conclusion is based on a competitors statement said to you privately (again no claim on the Oktava USA web site indicate they are the only authorized importer).

Alos, so far, this has been a friendly discussion. I'm hoping that the politics that you are suggesting are not from me.

For the record, (which is silly that it is needed) I never met Paul, don't know him or his family, never got anything from him except one mike at the same discounted DVX User price that is available to all on this board. But I did get excellent, friendly service as many others here have.

You just asked if the Sound Room "repairs mikes or sends them to the factory" and also said "For all I know the Sound Room does have a good relationship with the factory in Tula..".

Good questions, but how can you make the findings and statements and conclusions you made before while now admitting that there are a number of key things that you don't know about and are just know wondering out loud about. Again, in my view, if you wanted to have more credibility and be really fair about the issue, you should have (and still can) gotten a reply from Paul before implying that he is not selling factory backed mikes.

As I stated before, Paul may not be what he says and most of us think, but if you want to write about it, you should consider finding out the facts before coming to conclusion and then spreading those as fact.

Hope you give Paul equal time and then inform us all with balanced information.

Thanks.
 
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For what it's worth I just went back and checked the Oktava that I ordered from the Sound-Room. Serial # were there on the mic, and from what I remembered it came with all the documentations, including the test chart. Paul gave me excellent service (including a handwritten "Thank You!" on the receipt) and I have no doubt that what he sells are genuine Oktava mic.
 
Hi Folks,

I thought I might jump in and offer some clarification, This will be long… so I apologize beforehand, but it is necessary I feel. I’ll use Dan’s (puredrifting) comments as a reference point.

For the record The Sound Room carries only genuine Oktava mics from the factory at Tula, Russia. We always have done this and always will.
puredrifting : “True, the letter does state that Oktava USA are an official representative of JSC Oktava, Russian Federation/Tula. This, combined with conversations I have had with Oktava USA led me to believe that Oktava USA is the factory authorized distributor in the U.S.”
​
Ken Heaton/OktavaUSA is the factory authorized distributor here in the USA. (Canada too I believe). For what it's worth, our relationship with Oktava (Tula) predates OkatvaUSA's "official distributorship" by many years. I've spoken to Ken Heaton and from what I gathered in our conversations together he seems to be a really nice guy and also a stand-up fellow. I would highly recommend anyone to do business with him.

Even though we are not among OktavaUSA’s dealers, we do in fact sell the genuine article from the plant in Tula. Oktava mics purchased from us ALWAYS carry a three week return policy and a TWO year (one year longer than factory) warranty.
puredrifting : “Based upon the review copies of the MK-012 that I received from Okatva USA, I still stand by the assertion that in this country, if you want to know that the Oktava you are buying, is in fact a real Russian made in Tula Oktava, you should purchase from one of Oktava USA's five dealers.”
​
Well, you can also purchase genuine Oktavas from me at The Sound Room. Our documentation is in English. We throw away the Russian booklet. (If any one you want one, email me and I’ll send you one, i always have some around ) We had our partners in Moscow make us an English language warranty booklet, because I have yet to come across ANY audio engineer that can read Cyrillic. We also provide frequency response charts for each mic (this is especially important with the matched pairs).

Hold on... wait a second… let’s see here… The Sound Room was the first retailer to provide frequency charts with EVERY Oktava mic and capsule, Oh and packaging the mics in a nice wooden box… guess who came up with that idea first? That would be The Sound Room. And who was the first to provide warranty service in the USA for the MK012? Yep, you guessed it.. that was us too! (and a two year warranty at that!).

*** And most importantly to EVERYONE here: Who was the first to create a product SPECIFICALLY for this DVXuser community? I am talking about the MK012A in black with a hypercardioid capsule. I affectionately named it the "Bello Nero". Yep, that was The Sound Room...again. Because of all of our work here together, the factory now offers this in its standard product line.

And all this talk of Chinese/fake mics is almost 3 years old now. Many people are still very uninformed about this in a major way. It’s beginning to appear to me that perhaps this might be by design because of what was implied earlier in this thread. The short story is this: AF McKay (from the UK) had those fakes manufactured in China after they had lost the worldwide Oktava distributorship which was then given to OktavaUSA. Go ahead... try to find a fake mic! The ONLY place in the world that you might find a fake Oktava these days is next to some rugs and spices in a market stall in Marrakesh.
puredrifting : “For all I know, Paul of The Sound Room does have a good relationship with the factory in Tula and he does import them himself directly to sell through The Sound Room. If so, that is a highly unusual situation. I do have several years of retail and consumer audio experience and years of dealing with U.S. distributors.’
​
For all you know, yes, the relationship is a good one. I too have years of retail experience dealing with U.S. distributors. Oh, and I also have years of experience dealing with Russians too.

---

Everyone here at DVXuser, I really can’t thank you all enough for your continued support. I hope to be acquainted with many of you for years to come. Rest assured we only sell the genuine Oktava microphone and we will back your microphones up with warranty repair/replacement service for two years. We’ve been at this a long time and we love Oktava. It was the hard work of Taylor Johnson and The Sound Room that helped give the MK012 its reputation worldwide that it so rightfully deserves.

That’s all for now… now I have to go look into this K-TEK stuff you guys are always talk about…

Call or email anytime.
All the best,
Paul

(ps: For all you article/review writers out there in in cyberspace coming across this thread in the future, please also refer to The Sound Room FAQ's for information on Oktava mics sold by the Sound Room. We've had this information posted for a few years now.)
 
And if that doesn't work for you, but you can't afford a Schoeps cmc641, get the Audix SCX-1.

Regards,

Ty Ford
 
Paul,

Delighted to see you here and really appreciate your great service and correcting the misinformation that was spread here.

You are a class act. Others here could learn a lot from your kind and professional manner!
 
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Kelly:

The discussion was, of course, friendly, although I can see by your response above that you do not think so. The politics have nothing to do with you or me, it would seem that the politics are are between JSC Oktava, Oktava USA and several retailers and Ebay sellers.

Paul has been contacted to offer his input and to clarify The Sound Room's position.

You wrote, "Again, in my view, if you wanted to have more credibility and be really fair about the issue, you should have (and still can) gotten a reply from Paul before implying that he is not selling factory backed mikes."

Show me where I say Paul is selling counterfeit mics. All I have said is that I don't know anything about what The Sound Room is selling. I would think you would see that the problem is, I don't have the resources to go to each audio retailer in each region of the country and obtain their version of the story. What about Red Square Audio? What about Recording Services, Front End Audio, JRR Shop, Integrated MIDI Systems and ProSound Stage and Lighting? Do I have to go them too and get their version of how and why they sell Oktava? I said that there are counterfeit MK-012s in the U.S. market. I don't know where they have come from and honestly, I don't have the time or resources to do a full scale CBS Investigative Report and trace the origins of each one, but I have talked to people on-line and at AES/NAB that have been burned.

Based upon my dealing with eleven other manufacturers, many of who I have dealt with as a writer, audio retailer and a producer over the past decade, this entire situation with the Oktava is somewhat extraordinary. With all other brands, you go to either the manufacturer or their U.S. distributor and either tells you who the authorized retail outlets are. With the Oktava, it seems more like a spy novel. I am hoping between Oktava USA and The Sound Room, we can figure out what is going on and who I should recommend to readers as a quality legitimate source to buy from.

My mission WAS to simply write a microphone review article because it has been requested of me several times. What it has turned into is a detour into the mysteries of the Oktava MK-012.

Best,

Dan
 
Paul,

You forgot to mention that Sound Room is also the only place (to my knowledge) that offers Oktavas and Rycote BBG. I still encourage you to look into being a dealer for K-tek. With the KSSM shockmount, a Ktek pole, and BBG you could put together a complete Oktava boom kit. A one stop shop for DVXusers looking to put together a budget kit (lord knows we got a million of them).

Cheers
 
Although I have never purchased anything from sound room, I mentioned their name at the beginning of the thread because so many here have with good results. I think the warranty speaks for itself and if there was a chance of bad product entering their channel, someone inevitably would have posted a thread.

I also can speak to Dan being a knowledgeable person on the boards. I have learned much from him in the lighting section and I am sure there is no ulterior motive on his part.
 
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Dan,

"I don't have the time or resources to do a full scale CBS Investigative Report "
First, why would you want to? And second, what is your real motive here?

There is really no mystery. I don't mean this in an insulting way at all, but the internet, and Google in particular, are very powerful tools. Yes, you can find much information on our website, but you can simply do some searches for "Sound Room" and "Oktava". There is tons of information, comments, praise, reviews, etc. out there. Search places such as here (DVXuser) rec.audio.pro, mojopie, gearslutz, etc.

There is no doubt where to buy genuine Oktavas. Yes, OktavaUSA is one source, and The Sound Room is another. There may be others, but I can surely promise you that buying from Ken (and his dealers) or buying from me will get you a genuine, made in Tula, Oktava microphone. This is my livelihood. You can trust that I wouldn't do anything to compromise that.

This all being said, I really do think I'm starting to misunderstand your motive here.

Listen, if it makes it easier for your investigation, please alert your readers to buy from OktavaUSA. It is only fair to Ken, since he is the one that provided you with the sample. For you to consider listing another dealer is not fair to him at all. (however it would be much appreciated if you also list me and I will gladly take any link and (good) press I can get)

For example, are you going to list every dealer in the USA for the other eleven manufacturers? I'm afraid you'd have a long list on your hands.

-Paul
 
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Paul,

Thank you for responding and clarifying your company's position. I am still a bit confused by the situation, not on your end or Oktava USA's end but on the end of JCS Oktava. Based upon your dealing with other brands, you know that it is unusual for a manufacturer to supply an official U.S. distributor with product and to supply a single retailer with product in the same market. Other brands I have dealt with over the years have come to legal blows over this sort of situation, it is typically termed gray market. It appears that besides the official distributor, there are many outlets to buy an Oktava MK-012 in the U.S. and up until recently, I was not aware of The Sound Room. In speaking with Oktava USA and receiving the review copy, The Sound Room's name never arose, as far as I was concerned Okatava USA was no different than Sennheiser USA or Audio-Techinca USA.

The conversation about the counterfeit mics first came up with a couple of gentleman I met at NAB this year. We were speaking about the K-3, the Russian Krasnagorsk 16mm camera that all of us had owned. One of the guys told me had purchased an MK-012 last year from an audio dealer in Philadelphia and had later compared it to a friend's MK-012. He said in comparing the two mics, he realized that the one he had bought was slightly differnt looking and was not a Russian MK-012 and that it didn't have a serial number on the mic or case. I did not see the mic and perhaps this story and two others that have been related to me in the past two year via e-mail chats have been fiction although I can't imagine why someone would say that they bought a counterfeit mic when they didn't. None of the parties mentiond any dealer that they had bought the mics from, although one did say from a company that had an Ebay store, but no specific names were mentioned so there was no motivation for them to lie to me about it. Maybe at this point it's a popular urban legend.

If I had known about The Sound Room, I am sure that I would have checked the FAQ. Just for the record, once again, it was not my intention to imply, impune or accuse The Sound Room of selling anything illegitmate or counterfeit, your website and reply show that you are a professional and that your sources are legtitmate.

I look forward to finishing up the review and publishing it.

Best,

Dan
 
Hi Paul:

The Sound Room said:
Dan,

"I don't have the time or resources to do a full scale CBS Investigative Report "
First, why would you want to? And second, what is your real motive here? I'm starting to wonder if you know Andy and Fergus.

There is really no mystery. I don't mean this in an insulting way at all, but the internet, and Google in particular, are very powerful tools. Yes, you can find much information on our website, but you can simply do some searches for "Sound Room" and "Oktava". There is tons of information, comments, praise, reviews, etc. out there. Search places such as here (DVXuser) rec.audio.pro, mojopie, gearslutz, etc.

There is no doubt where to buy genuine Oktavas. Yes, OktavaUSA is one source, and The Sound Room is another. There may be others, but I can surely promise you that buying from Ken (and his dealers) or buying from me will get you a genuine, made in Tula, Oktava microphone. This is my livelihood. You can trust that I wouldn't do anything to compromise that.

This all being said, I really do think I'm starting to misunderstand your motive here.

Listen, if it makes it easier for your investigation, please alert your readers to buy from OktavaUSA. It is only fair to Ken, since he is the one that provided you with the sample. For you to consider listing another dealer is not fair to him at all. (however it would be much appreciated if you also list me and I will gladly take any link and (good) press I can get)

For example, are you going to list every dealer in the USA for the other eleven manufacturers? I'm afraid you'd have a long list on your hands.

-Paul
Click to expand...

The Investigative Reports comment was directed toward Kelly, not you when he accused me of not having done all of my homework on who sells the Oktava.

The only Andy I know is a DP I worked with several years ago. I have never known a Fergus.

To me, in comparison with all of the other brands I reviewed for this article, the Oktava is a HUGE mystery and I am sure that if you have scoured the audio boards, you too have heard, "it's as good as the Schoeps", "it sounds amazing for the money""be careful of counterfeit Oktavas" as recurring themes. At least these are what my research showed when I was deciding on which mics to review. The mic itself is mysterious because Americans typically don't purchase and have little to no knowledge of any Russian products, much less Russian electronics. Based upon feedback, a lot of potential buyers are interested to know what all of the buzz about the MK-012 is. That coupled with the mic costs very little means a lot of interest.

Perhaps I was too taxed for time as I am not a full-time writer, but you will see when you Google "Oktava", the first link that shows up is Oktava USA so that's what I checked out first. Ken was very helpful and sent out the unit and I ran the tests and made the recordings, took the photos and shipped it back, I had no reason to research other sources for the mic. Just as I didn't for any of the other brands of mics I am reviewing. Contact the U.S. distributor, explain who I am and what I am writing about and review the mic.

I can appreciate that this is your livelihood, I am not trying to compromise that as you can see with my comments on my last post. This must be one of those situations where if we were all seated in a room, discussing this face to face, I don't think that there would have been this level of accusation directed at me, we could have just had a discussion instead of a borderline flame war.

I have stated my motive several times in this thread, to tell my readers where and from whom they should buy an MK-012 from, that's it. If you knew how little writers of Internet review articles like this make to write an article and the weeks of phone calls, testing, reviews, shipping, fact checking, re-edits, photos, layout and publishing, you would know that my motivation is that I really enjoy production sound and enjoy writing about it and sharing what I learn with others. It's definitely not for the money, it's definitely not for the notoriety because there is none. I do receive e-mails a few times a week, thanking me for sharing the knowledge for my previous articles, that is probably the nicest motivation.

As far as listing all of the dealers, that was my point I was trying to get across to Kelly, I would normally not list any dealers, I just list the U.S. distributor and we are done. I always figure that the readers can go to the distributors website and figure who they want to buy from themselves. But Kelly seemed to insist that I was doing The Sound Room a disservice if I did this and that Oktava USA was not THE official U.S. distributor, that they were merely A U.S. distributor.

Bosindy, thanks for the vote of confidence, guess I will think twice about posting on the audio board here although I seem to be welcome in all of the other forums.

Paul, Kelly, I promise you, no spy missions, no alterior motives, no espionage, no politics, just trying to get to the bottom of a very non industry standard, unusual situation.

Dan
 
Dan,

You asked if it was your responsibility to go to all of the other sellers and find out what their story was. I'd be happy to answer your question.

If you are going to write about them or make claims about them like you did about The Sound Room, then you bet your XLR you have a responsibility to check with them.

Basic journalism.
 
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