Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: Astatic D-104

Category: Microphones for ham radio

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : Astatic D-104
Reviews: 70MSRP: 90.
Description:
The Liliypop Mike
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.astatic.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00704.7
N9AOP Rating: 2019-07-12
Good mic for rework Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Replace the D-104 element with a Heil element and rewire to have a decent working mic. I bought a silver eagle for $30 and I believe the Heil element was $45. I recently saw a gold eagle at a 'fest for less than $100. Probably should have bought it for the 'bling'.
Art
HA7WX Rating: 2019-07-12
Engineered for efficient comms Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This microphone was indeed intended for high Z tube rig a long time ago.
Yes it's sort of rough because it was intended for effective communications with an emphasis on high frequencies.
This has never been engineered so that it has the response of a studio microphone with plenty of bass.
Personally, i gave it a try on my Kenwood TS950SDX, the audio was so good, they recorded me and sent it to me.
In fact, this microphone would be well suited to work pile-ups.
That's it, and that's all.
By the way, and it's a question of taste, they are nice looking at a radio station.
Mechanically, I could imagine better, hence the 4 instead of 5, that's another subject.

N6BIZ Rating: 2018-07-11
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have 4 d104s always get great audio reports
Very cool looking mics too
WC3O Rating: 2018-07-11
What a mic Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I just loves my D-104. I’ve had it since I was a lowly CBer, back in the day. I still use the very same D-104 today! When I ran Kenwoods (TS-820 and TS-440) I would receive unsolicited comments about how good it sounded. When I bought an ICOM (IC-746) I couldn’t make it sound good no matter what I did, including impedance matching, so I didn’t use my 104 for that time period. When I bought my Yaesu FT-920, the 104 sounded ok but not great. I decided to install a Heil HC-5 element in the head (Before anyone offered a kit I used cardboard and glue) and I was back to sounding great! I still use it today with my FTDX-5K. Most people don’t know this but… The D-104 was custom “engineered” specifically for the radio amateur. If you check the typical slouching ham in a chair, feet up on the desk, the D-104 lines up perfectly with the mouth when resting on the typical radio amateur beer belly. I tell ya, it’s just genius. The D-104 is perfect for long, meaningless monologues on 80 meters in the middle of the night. Talk about the latest procedures you’ve had done (New knee, bad eye, etc) and ALL your current medications. I plan on using my 104 until I can’t talk no-mo. My 104 is non-amplified with a straight cord. All the felt is long gone from the base plate. What a mic.
KG4RUL Rating: 2018-07-11
A Starting Point for a GREAT Mike1 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was able to purchase a D-104 with the 'G' stand for a reasonable price. I replaced the original mike element with a Heil HC5.1 element and the cord with Heil Wire. I split the radio end out into a 3.5mm Plug for mike audio and a 1/4" plug for PTT. Now I have a classic looking mike with modern innards and great sound. You could call it a microphone 'resto-mod'.
SV9DRU Rating: 2018-07-11
Quality where it counts ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Probably the best sounding mic (unaided by any elaborate "preamp - equalizer" device), with emphasis on the right speech audio frequencies to achieve maximum intelligibility.

As already mentioned, its qualities can only shine when properly terminated on the grid of a tube, as originally designed for, or the gate of a simple FET matching circuit, before "hitting" a present era solid state mic preamp.

http://www.qsl.net/hcara/Improving_the_D-104_N9WB_rev2.pdf

This mic has been around for a very long time and still very popular due to its great performance, ergonomics and looks. Mine when not in the shack, sits as decoration piece in the living room!

73s
Marinos, sv9dru / ki4gin
K6LO Rating: 2018-07-11
Properly applied - great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Often mistaken for a "CB Era" mic, the D-104 has been around since the 1920's. Connected to a high-Z transmitter or PROPERLY impedance matched to a modern rig, the crystal element is capable of clean, crisp, real communications quality audio. Great mic when properly understood and applied.
K5UJ Rating: 2017-11-02
Excellent ham radio mic Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The D104 a.k.a. D-Wonderful, is a great microphone if you know how to use it. My experience is limited to my unamplified Astatic D104 made circa 1937 with a crystal element. This was a mic made for ham radio. In fact, the D-104 was introduced decades before CB radio as an inexpensive solution to the microphone problem hams faced in the 1930s. In those days, hams often used carbon mics that produced poor readable audio with the modulation methods of the day. The D-104 changed everything with a high voltage.output and wide frequency response with a rise at 3 kc followed by a roll off of ~ 20 dB. The microphone design resulted in clean clear audio with enough output to make them testable directly into the vertical input of an oscilloscope. By the way, the D-104 model number technically refers to the mic head--the base doesn't matter. Mine is on a floor stand; it's still a D104.

To get the best performance, you have to pair the D-104 with the right audio load impedance. The original D-104 was intended to be used with a tube speech amplifier using a grid resistor of 5 to 10 megohms. This matched load allows for the passing of bass audio down below 100 cycles (if the operator has that deep a voice) and the coupling capacitor values are around 0.1 mfd in the audio circuits of the transmitter. To pass high sibilance, bypass capacitors should be low value, around .001 mfd.

I have no experience using a modern D-104 that has the transistorized pre-amp, but a regular D-104 will not work well at all with a modern plastic radio's low impedance audio input. As is the case with an old Vibroplex bug, the good old D-104 works great if you know how to use it and its high output can really drive an old transmitter's audio input stage.
N1KDO Rating: 2017-11-02
Impedance Matching! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Fun and highly retro, these mics work well into a very high-impedance input.

I put W9AC's common-source buffer (see his QRZ page, great!) into a D-104 that I bought at a hamfest for $35 and I use it with my KX3, just for the hilarious juxtaposition of using something so old and clunky and chrome-y with something so new and black and modern. This arrangement actually sounds quite good.

Those that complain about "screechy" audio likely have an impedance mismatch.
KC2QYM Rating: 2017-11-02
When is a D-104 not a D-104 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The trouble with some reviews is that the D-104 that the reviewer has may not actually have the Rochelle salt crystal element that was within the original D-104. Many of these mics are retrofit with electret condenser elements which change the entire sound of the mic. Unless you inspect the enclosure of the microphone you pick up at some hamfest or via ebay, you may not be buying the original article. Therefore, these mix and match elements may be in the D-104 enclosure but it's a totally different microphone. The original D-104 produced ear bleeding high, screechy audio which is perfect for high noise, QRM, DX situations...but not recommended for rag chews unless you want your friends to clear off prematurely.