This illustration from the British weekly newspaper The Graphic was printed in 1917, at the height of the First World War. It details a proposed application of binaural listening. A pair of ‘electric ears’ are positioned one on either side of the hull, at front of the vessel, below the water line (as shown in the diagram). The ‘electric ears’ are most probably carbon microphones. These are hung in, what is described as, ‘dense liquid of a secret nature’. Whilst dense liquids provide excellent transmission of sound, I can find no evidence of any liquid that actually magnifies sound, as suggested above!

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Every so often I buy a microphone purely out of curiosity. The Discreet Archive Earthphone is one such purchase I acquired recently. It’s an unusual sound gathering device which invites the user to go exploring! Based on a geophone design the Earthphone has a frequency response from 10Hz to 1kHz. It can be used to listen to low end sounds (particularly quiet sounds) inside a range of subjects both natural and manmade. The Earthphone comes with a choice of three different sensors which can be interchangeably screwed on to the body pictured below.

For those of you who like a good read, and enjoy delving into the history of audio, here below is a fascinating BBC MONOGRAPH from 1961 exploring the engineering challenges leading up to the first stereo broadcasts here in the UK. The BBC began regular experimental radio broadcasts starting on August 28th1962. Previous occasional experiments had involved the listener using two radio sets tuned to different wavelengths! One radio broadcasting the left channel and the other broadcasting the right. When I was a child in the 50’s I can remember my Dad preparing for one such broadcast.

When Dorset based SONTRONICS launched back in 2005, the STC-2 was one of its very first products. Solid and well built, this microphone quickly proved to be popular and has remained in the catalogu…

Manchester BMG Club (Frank Mitchell 2nd row 3rd from left) Spindler’s Banjo Quartet.  (Frank Mitchell 2nd from left) In 1928, at the age of 17, my dad, Frank Mitchell, an apprentice brick laye…

CLICKHEREJohn Snagge announces the D-Day Landings in France 75 years ago today. The STC4017c was used by the BBC throughout World War 2 to broadcast many momentous events and speeches. Possibly the…

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IN THE BEGINNING Today Calrec is best known as a manufacturer of large, up-market, mixing consoles, however, it all started with microphones. Calder Recordings Ltd began producing microphones in He…