MXL V69ME Mic: Upgrade Your Recording

MXL V69ME mic is a high quality tube condenser microphone suitable for recording vocals and voice over work. It’s a prefect mic for a mid to high-end, or even a home recording studio.

I love this mic. It’s probably the best investment I’ve ever made for my studio in a long time.

According to MXL, the V69ME came as a “result of years of research to create a large diaphragm tube condenser microphone” that can deliver a rich and smooth sound with low noise.

In this MXL V69ME (Mogami Edition) review, we’ll take a look at some of its features, how it sounds and whether you should or should not buy it.

MXL V69ME Build And Look

The V69ME is a very well-built mic. Its metal body feels solid. Actually, there is not much to say about its build quality other than that.

Aesthetically, it also looks nice. The black bottom barrel and is contrasted with the top 24k gold plated grill which gives the mic a simple but sleek look.

No switches, filters or pads are found on the body so it’s plain simple.

MXL V69ME Mic Sound

The V69ME is a fixed cardioid polar pattern tube condenser microphone that adds a really warm broad sound to your recording especially for vocals and voice over.

It gives you the crispness of a large diaphragm condenser with the warmth of a tube while maintaining a low noise signal.

The transformerless design, Mogami cabling and the dedicated power supply (we’ll explain these two shortly) all help keep the self noise super low.

If you don’t like the character or the sound of the V69ME mic, you can fairly easily replace the 12AT7 tube inside and upgrade it to a tube with better sound or a sound of your liking.

Looking at the frequency curve of the V69ME, you can clearly see a sharp presence peak of +7dB at around the 11k mark. This can be smoothed out with a little bit of EQ.

Although the MXL V69ME mic is not aimed at instrument recording, it sounded pretty good on guitars.

MXL V69ME Mic Specs

Type:	Pressure gradient tube condenser mic
Diaphragm:	6 micron gold-sputtered
Capsule Size:	32mm/1.26 in.
Frequency Response:	20Hz -18kHz
Polar pattern:	Cardioid
Sensitivity:	22 mV/Pa
Output Impedance:	200 ohms
Equivalent noise:	22 dB (A-weighted IEC 268-4)
S/N Ratio:	72 dB (Ref. 1 Pa A-weighted)
Max SPL for .5% THD:	140 dB
Power Requirements:	110/220VAC, 50-60Hz/Dedicated power supply
Size:	47mm x 218mm/1.85 in. x 8.58 in.
Weight:	1 lb/498.95g
Metal Finish:	Black with gold grill

Mogami Edition

The “ME” in the V69ME name refers to “Mogami Edition”.

Mogami is a premium cable company that makes very high quality cabling for various devices.

The “ME” designation means that the V69ME is wired internally with all Mogami cabling which reduces the amount of noise usually associated with low quality cabling. The better the wiring, the less noise there is.

MXL V69ME Package and Accessories

The MXL V69ME ships in a very nice aluminum flight case.

In the case, you’ll find the V69ME mic, a matching black, shockmount and a standard foam windscreen. The included shockmount is the standard one that comes with cheaper MXL mics not the premium shockmount found with higher end mic like the MXL CR89.

The V69ME also comes in the box with a big external power supply. That’s because it needs its own power which is more than most mics can get through phantom power. The dedicated power supply also helps in reducing any noise that the mic might generate.

Both a 7 pin power cable and a Mogami XLR cable are included in the box too.

MXL V69ME Price

The MXL V69ME retails for $269 on Amazon.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking to upgrade the sound of your recording at home and you’re using a standard dynamic mic, this is really a nice upgrade that will add significant quality to your recordings. At $269 this is a fantastic sounding microphone for not a lot of money.