The Lauten Audio Eden LT-386 represents the apex of the brand’s design prowess, and in this review we’ll break down why this high-end tube condenser deserves the title.
Lauten Brings Professional Quality Sound to Your Studio
From the premium Signature series to the midrange, affordable Synergy and Black lineups, Lauten microphones exude quality. They’re a small, family-owned business who’re passionate about not only microphone design and construction, but customer experience as well.
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Lauten has kindly allowed us to demo their products on multiple occasions, and each time we’ve been blown away by the performance of these outstanding microphones. As Lauten Audio becomes more and more of a household name, be sure to keep an eye on their mics if you’re on the hunt for professional sound quality at any budget.
Lauten Audio Eden LT-386 Review
Build Quality
The Eden LT-386 packs top-notch components internally and externally. At the core is an EF806 tube, aged in-house, paired with a US-made, custom-wound output transformer with full copper windings. The 38mm capsule is a proprietary, hand-tuned design, and everything is assembled by hand at their factory in Silicon Valley.
At this price point, you should expect substantial build quality. Lauten naturally delivers for not only the Eden, but the rest of their Signature series, right on down to the critically acclaimed (and affordable!) Black series.
Sound Quality
Now here’s where things get most interesting. The Eden is far from being a one-color microphone to which most of us are accustomed. This thing is incredibly versatile, offering a full range of colorful sounds. Smooth, round, and vintage — it’s there. Open, airy, hi-fi, and modern — it does that too (more on that in the section below!).
Much of the Eden’s impressive sonics come from their custom capsule. The 38mm beast is one of the biggest ever, creating what Lauten calls a “super-transducer.” Equipped as such, it’s able to capture instruments and performances with lifelike realism, depth, dimension, and authenticity.
Features
The greatest feature that the Eden LT-386 boasts is its Multi-Voicing technology. At the flip of a switch, you have three unique palettes to play with:
- Forward: The most modern setting that’s in-your-face, bold, and airy.
- Neutral: The most balanced setting that’s similar to what you’d expect from a premium tube condenser. Smooth and organic.
- Gentle: The darkest and most subdued setting that’s amazing for minimizing harshness or abrasiveness in sibilant vocals or brash instruments.
Next is a three-position high-pass filter section to further refine the Multi-Voice settings. “Off” is neutral and lets the full frequency spectrum through. “Soft” enables a steep high-pass filter for further reduction of muddiness. If you pair that with the Gentle voice, it’s an excellent recreation of an authentic vintage microphone. “Hard” is a mid-forward setting. When paired with the Forward voice, you have a microphone that’s perfect for contemporary pop, rap, and R&B vocals.
Finally, the Eden offers three polar patterns: cardioid, omni, and figure-8.
The Lauten Eden LT-386 Would Be Right at Home in Many Studio Settings
As you can probably tell, the Eden packs a lot of sounds into a single microphone. It’s beautiful and diverse as a vocal microphone for any genre, and sounds exceptional on acoustic instruments like guitar. Lauten gave it the SPL handling to square up against kick drum, and the self-noise to take on the quietest and most intimate performances.
Our Take: Lauten’s Eden LT-386 Is a Versatile & Impressive Tube Mic
There’s a reason Lauten Audio considers the Eden LT-386 the “pinnacle” of their designs. Take away the rich feature-set they’ve managed to incorporate, and the microphone would most certainly be lovely as is. But the real design magic lies in the ability to add in those multiple voices and filters. The consumer essentially ends up with three mics in one, powered by the full-bodied richness of a vintage tube condenser as the engine.