At ADK Microphones, our proprietary capsule design is at the heart of every mic we produce—trusted by leading manufacturers and featured in 100% of our models.
Crafted with 99.999% pure gold vapor deposit and pre-aged 3- and 6-micron designs, ADK capsules deliver unmatched sound quality. Our Straight-Wire approach preserves vintage tone while achieving superior specs, thanks to a global collaboration between world-class engineers and designers.
ADK Custom Shop offers a spectrum of tonal colors for every genre—from Hip Hop to Opera, Metal to Jazz, Folk to Rock, and beyond. Spanning three continents, our team works alongside some of the industry’s sharpest ears to push sonic boundaries.
Inspired by Ray Charles, the ADK Custom Shop Z-Mod took seven years to perfect—not as a clone, but as a Classic Re-Imagined.
Our story
In 2003, ADK provided vocal mics for two acclaimed albums: Got Swing by The Manhattan Transfer and Genius Loves Company by Ray Charles—marking a turning point in our mic design. At the time, options for capsules were limited: either prohibitively expensive European models or low-quality Asian alternatives. Rather than reskinning Chinese capsules, as some boutique builders did, we took a different path.
ADK’s design team in Europe and the USA set out to reimagine vintage mic sound using straight-wire theory. Instead of bright-toned capsules detuned with phase-altering EQ, we developed capsules that naturally embodied the tone of our five favorite vintage mics—eliminating the need for extra circuitry.
The result? Classic tones with a cleaner, quieter signal chain and greater dynamic range. After five years of development and two years of beta testing with top artists and engineers, we fine-tuned our capsule designs and transformer pairings.
Our pursuit of excellence continues with our latest collaboration with renowned designer David Bock, culminating in the ADK Z² Z-Mod Tube Microphone Collection.
ADK 67 capsule style reveal
The foundation of ADK Microphones’ sonic qualities is built on our founder’s 50+ years of collecting and recording with vintage microphones.
One of the hidden secrets behind our four best-selling 67 series microphones—including the Z²-67, Hamburg-67 T, and C-Lol 67 (FX & TL)—is that instead of referencing the standard U-67, we based our design on the German Broadcast version, the M-269. The extra boost in the speech intelligibility frequencies makes its tone profile ideal for modern studio applications.
The M-269 inspired the ADK 67 series across all microphone lines and has remained our best-selling mic for nearly two decades due to its unmatched versatility.
Selecting the perfect microphone for you
When describing sound quality, people often use terms like “light” and “dark.” While common in some discussions, this language can create confusion by implying an either/or relationship to sound.
At ADK, we approach sound selection differently—not as a binary choice, but as a gradient scale from Density to Clarity.
A well-designed microphone can provide both clarity and density. Reducing the conversation to just “light” or “dark” oversimplifies the selection process and may lead to choosing a mic that isn’t the most flattering for the source.
Our microphone capsule design embodies this gradient from Density to Clarity. Asking yourself key questions about your sound source and the tone you want to achieve will guide you toward the right microphone.
Our Design Philosophy is simple: build the best designs so you can make the most appropriate and flattering choices for your sound.
Dial in your Tone Color with ADK.
