Peluso Mics

I have never heard a Peluso that I like very much.

I had the 2247Le for almost 10 years. Excellent microphone, worked on pretty much all vocalists. I revisited some of those sessions and the vocals do sound great. I think I bought mine for like 1200$ used and it served me well.

Years ago, I had the Peluso P12 and thought it sounded really good. But it was about 1/2 the price they are today. At today's prices and more competition, I would go the Beesneez route. Not so much that the Peluso P12 is bad, but the Beesneez 12a tube is amazing!

John, Mary, and Chris are good friends and I’ve been to their place several times. At ETSU we have (let me count)…

2247SE
P12
TR14
P28 (two of them)
P87
P414 (four of them)
P84 (two of them)

And I own a P49 for myself.

If you can’t make a record with Peluso, it ain’t the mic’s fault.

The crew at Peluso are very friendly people and are very generous when it comes to helping artist, especially in roots genres. I think I've used every Peluso microphone and while I don't personally own any of them I was always impressed with the 2247LE.

Hey tonycamphd. I have seen Ben and Veronica grow and change over the last 10 + years.
Ben has tried to make amends to a few people I know in the past. They have been satisfied with the outcome.
Seriously I would take Ben up on his offer and try and sort this out off line, you might be surprised.
My 2 cents.

humidity shock hits m7s particularly hard unless you get all the materials perfect. i'm genuinely scared of shipping m7s to different climates tbh.

Leave this poor crestfallen RFK Jr supporter alone, please.

My understanding about Peluso is, as was stated before, he really got the ball rolling on creating more budget friendly clones that sounded good.  The CEK12 was his design. He took a K67 capsule and found away to make it behave similarly to a CK12.  Giving him and others the ability to make C12 and 251 style mics for more of a budget price.  I had tried his 2247LE in a studio in Brooklyn and really loved what I heard. So much so, that even after just investing in my U87ai, my wife and I decided to invest in the Peluso. I made the mistake of listening to the marketing and purchasing the 2247SE which used a Russian tube and “sounds the same.” It did not. In fact you can listen to clips on Audio Test Kitchen and hear it still does not sound the same.  It was more open up top and lacked some low end info that LE had.  That said, it was my go to mic for my vocals for a while. It came with me to some big shootouts, and I got to put it next to a mint Wagner U47, which itself seemed to beat out all the vintage U47s in every shootout it was part of.  It did an ok job at capturing sound in the same way as the Wagner, but lacked the warmth. My understanding about his capsules is they are made to spec in China, but assembled and skinned here in the states by John.

When I started looking at 49s and 67s Peluso was my first pick.  I just didn’t have the funds at the time. So I began looking at Advanced Audio which would save me over $1000. Dave began AA by modding the Apex 460s with circuit corrections and Peluso capsules.  At some point Peluso stopped selling them his capsules and Dave went out to the same factory in China and had them make the AA capsules, however they made the whole capsule and then sent them to AA where they were QCed at their shop before being installed in a mic.  Eventually, I believe all of their mics are now made fully in China, and the mics themselves are QCed in their shop. I didn’t really love the CM12 or CM251. They were fine, but I didn’t love them. I had modded a pair of TNC ACM1200s (became the Avantone CV12) into the CM12 and CM251, but I’m not sure either was necessarily better sounding than the original mic, just different. The CM12 seemed tamer. The CM251 worked on a couple of voices well, but not better than the CM49 did. These of course use the CEK12 capsule design.

Peluso in my opinion had a better build quality. The mics looked nicer and less generic. As for sound, they were probably in the same vein. I loved my AA CM49. I never got a chance to try the Peluso P49, but clips out there show a very similar sound. I wish I had tried his new CM49LE. I know it uses a more M49 style body, nicer power supply, and that he tested an AC701K in the circuit to figure out what was going on electrically, and modified the circuit of the CM49 to replicate what was going on while using his chosen tube. At this point I have a pair of FleA 49s, so there is no reason to chase the CM49LE down.  The Peluso 2247SE was a better U47 style mic than the CM48T I tried.  The CM48T was nice and darker, but didn’t quite behave like a U48. AA’s CM67SE was based on a modified U67 with a bright top end sound. It was a nice sounding mic though, although more open than my RMS269. Dave was able to provide a mod for me that rolled off the top for a more traditional sounding U67 sound using the low end rolloff switch as a high end rolloff. I never got a chance to compare it to the Peluso P67, but the P67 sounds nice from what I heard. I also hear the P67 got slightly darker after its initial release based on customer feedback. 

Warm is doing basically the same thing as AA, but on a global scale. I liked the WA47. It’s not as polished sounding as a FleA or Wagner, but it sounds like a U47 clone. It has a touch bigger high end and low end than the real thing. Non the less it’s a nice place to start. I liked it better than my Peluso 2247SE. I kind of wonder how it would compare to the 2247LE. Their WA67 does the opposite, it is darker than a real U67. I was able to directly compare it to my modded MK U67 and the Beesneez BU67/269. The WA67 was just dull and hard to EQ. Beesneez had a slightly smaller sound than my MKU67, and rolled off more than I would like, but Ben did something interesting, he listened to me and others who had similar thoughts on his mic, and created an MKII version to address them. So, that was a no brainer for me. I sold the WA67 and used it to partially fund the Beesneez B67/269 MKII. It hasn’t left the stand since I bought it and sits covered next to my FleA 49. Their WAC12 and WA251 use a CEK12 capsule. 

When I look at Peluso, AA, and Warm I think they all have a few winners in their arsenals. If I needed a few extra mics for a project and found a WA47, CM49, or Peluso 2247LE at decent prices, I would strongly consider them.  For real budget concerns, look at the ADK TFETs. I preferred the 251 Cremona to my AA CM251, and their 67 is a great general purpose mic with that more neutral 67 flavor. I went in this direction,and for me it’s a good direction.

I think the Beesneez mics are much better in general, and if you have the budget you should start there. I hope to try a few more of his mics down the road. I really want to try his BC12 long body and new 251. mics , if you send them my way I will make an awesome video featuring two pretty outstanding opera/legit singers. 

As someone who has not used any Peluso, AA, and only the very early ADKs, how does Pearlman fit into all this? Haven’t used anything there either.

I stopped caring at least 10-years ago.

At this point, for me, with all the mics I own, the only mic (from the group I mentioned) I can see myself buying is the Pearlman Church; but not at that price-point. Honestly, it’d be awesome if he’d sell he a transformer. I haven’t contacted him.

So when you refer to the "two modes".  I'm assuming that is a specific mod that yours has?  I thought I remember seeing something about that.  I think mine is just a standard HPF but maybe I'm wrong.  Mine has an EF80 tube in it.  I bought it used so it's several years old but it's still got the gray painted body (not the older black body - those seemed to mostly use the EF12 tubes I think?).  It sounds exactly like what I was hearing in my head (but the only other $$$$ boutique 47/48 mic I've used is a Wunder CM7s, and not simultaneously...)