Aston Stealth

The Aston Stealth is a cardioid, end-fire microphone for use on stage or in the studio, from VO, to gaming, live sound to serious high-end recording. With some of the biggest advances in mic technology in decades, conceived and designed from the ground-up, Stealth is the world’s most versatile microphone. Boasting settings for four separate voices, each one rigorously tested to deliver unparalleled performance across a wide range of applications, Stealth also introduces a host of innovative technological features offering significant improvements over traditional mic designs. Four settings, four different voices. Think of Stealth as four professional microphones in one. Each setting has been voiced by a panel of more than 90 top flight audio engineers and producers on the Aston 33 panel through a series of double-blind listening tests, beating not only every mic in its class, but some far more expensive ‘industry standard’ mics. There are 2 vocal settings, optimised for different vocal textures, a guitar setting which is equally suited to Spanish guitar, Electric guitar cab and steel string acoustic, and a dark, vintage setting, reminiscent of classic ribbon mics. Mics which apply 'flattering' - but destructive - pre EQ make professional post-processing almost impossible. Stealth, however, provides a choice of four pure, high quality signal paths. The voice settings are not EQ filters, they are contour networks, meaning the bulk of the signal does not pass through any sort of filter circuitry. The whole signal is slightly attenuated, with some frequencies being added back in at a higher level. This results in much lower phase distortion than conventional filter designs. Active & Passive modes with 48V Autodetect function Stealth works with or without 48V phantom power. In passive mode (unpowered) the active circuit is completely bypassed and Stealth operates with the simplest possible signal chain to give a beautifully clean sound. A unique (world’s first!) built-in Autodetect function senses the presence of 48V phantom power and will automatically switch the mic to active mode to utilise the onboard class A mic Pre. Built-in Class A Mic Preamp When in active mode Stealth features a high-quality built-in Class A Mic Pre, dispensing with the need for an expensive external gain lifting device. The preamp is a fully differential drive circuit, meaning the signal path is entirely balanced and floating. Most, if not all, active microphones use a single ended preamp with a balancing circuit on the output, but that’s ‘fake balanced’! A single ended preamp takes half of the wave from the capsule with the other half grounded. Stealth amplifies both halves of the wave from capsule to output. Because the preamp is fed with a higher input it requires less gain, therefore giving better signal to noise performance.