Lewitt has used the AES Convention in New York to debut its new single-pattern large-diaphragm condenser, the LCT 540 SUBZERO.

The Austrian microphone manufacturer says its new flagship model takes “super-low self-noise,” “highly sensitive,” and “huge dynamic range” to a whole new level.

Its premium-quality capsule, together with some clever circuit design, drops the electrical self-noise to -1 dB (A) at a sensitivity of 41 mV/Pa, -28 dBV/Pa, and it increases the dynamic range to 132 dB (A) – a first for studio-grade large-diaphragm condensers.

“Everybody thinks 0 dB SPL is the hearing threshold, but that’s in fact only true at 2 kHz. At this point, the LCT 540 SUBZERO actually has self-noise of below -7 dB SPL – hence the name. The acoustic self-noise of 4 dB (A) is caused by random molecules bouncing against the diaphragm,” said Lewitt head of product management Moritz Lochner. “Describing something frequency-dependent in one single value is nowhere near detailed enough at this level of engineering. We even went and redesigned our self-noise measuring equipment especially for this microphone.”

The initial small batch of microphones will be available within the next couple of weeks, with final roll-out planned for January 2018. A street price of below $1,000 is to be expected. Lewis can be found on Booth #740 at this year’s AES New York Convention, which takes place from 18-21 October at the Javits Center.

www.lewitt-audio.com

www.aes.org