Lewitt LCT540 Sub Zero Condensor Microphone

The engineering of this particular piece of cutting-edge audio technology asked for a forward-thinking approach towards capsule and circuit design. As a result, a way of experiencing sound at infinite depth and absolute precision came to life; its name, the LCT 540 SUBZERO. Get involved with tone and sound in ways unheard and bring your recordings to perfection by capturing all the fine-grained characteristics that constitute each moment of your performance. Rediscover your instrument and voice on a whole new level of musical detail.  

BETTER THAN HUMAN HEARING

Subzero Self-Noise Architecture To see how good our hearing is in a purely technical way we can look at the threshold of hearing. Bear in mind that our hearing threshold is very frequency dependent. Human hearing is less sensitive towards low and very high frequencies and most sensitive around 2 – 5 kHz. Comparing the hearing threshold to the self-noise values of the LCT 540 SUBZERO, you can clearly see that our microphone is always below the threshold of hearing. The entire frequency spectrum is important, here, because looking at a microphone’s self-noise as a single value just isn’t detailed enough when discussing high-end sound transducers.  

PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT

9900 Pounds of Measurement The better the microphone, the more difficult self-noise measurement gets. You need a place where no outside noise will interfere with the measurement result. This is especially difficult for lower frequencies. To measure the self-noise of the LCT 540 SUBZERO, we needed to build a unique measurement device that is more than ten times more massive than conventional ones, weighing over 4500 kg or 9900 pounds in total. It heavily dampens frequencies up to a 1/10,000th of their sound pressure. The whole frequency range of a microphone from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz is dampened by 60 dB, up to 80 dB on the higher frequencies.  

THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Why Is Low-Self Noise Important? When you climb a mountain, and the weather is clear, your reward is a fantastic view. If it is partly cloudy or foggy, the payoff is profoundly reduced. The same goes for recording. Some peaks stick out of the noise floor (fog), but if you remove as much noise as possible, you will be rewarded with details that were buried before. This microphone can pick up the subtlest details in vocals or instruments, an almost inaudible whispering can be pushed up and sound crystal clear. Many noise issues only reveal themselves in post-production. Once you start compressing the signals a previously inaudible noise floor can appear; not with the LCT 540 SUBZERO.  

THE BEAUTY OF UNLIMITED DETAIL

Infinte Depth. Absolute Precision. The LCT 540 SUBZERO captures every sound source with absolute precision - because it is built with absolute precision; not even the tiniest detail of your recorded source will get lost. To guarantee its ultra-resolution sound and first-class sonic imaging, every 3 ?m gold-sputtered, 1" Mylar diaphragm underlies the strictest quality controls.  

PERFECT MATCH TECHNOLOGY

Every single LCT 540 SUBZERO undergoes a series of measurements followed by adjustment of the polarization voltage to achieve the same sensitivity in every LCT 540 SUBZERO we will ever produce.  

WHAT IS IN THE BOX

The LCT 540 SUBZERO comes in a military-grade protective case, with a shock mount that reduces structure-borne noise to a minimum, and a magnetic pop-filter that integrates perfectly with the design of the microphone.  

Specifications

• Acoustical operating principle - Pressure gradient transducer, externally polarized
• Diaphragm - 3 micron gold sputtered Mylar
• Transducer Ø - 25.4 mm, 1 in
• Polar pattern - Cardioid
• Sensitivity - 41 mV/Pa, -28 dBV/Pa
• Equivalent noise level - 4 dB (A)
• SPL for 0.5 % THD - 136 dBSPL, 0 dB pre-attenuation
• Signal / noise ratio - 90 dB (A)
• Dynamic range - 132 dB (A)
• Pre-attenuation pad - 0 dB, -6 dB, -12 dB
• Low-cut filter - linear, 80 Hz (6 dB/oct), 160 Hz (6 dB/oct)
• Internal impedance - 68 ?
• Supply voltage - 48 V +/- 4 V
• Current consumption - 3.6 mA
• Mic enclosure - Zinc die cast
• Connector - Gold plated 3-pin XLR
• Microphone dimensions - 158 x 52 x 36 mm, 6.22 x 2.04 x 1.42 in
• Microphone net weight - 371 g, 13.1 oz