However, the Tula-based plant has also grown to become a globally renowned microphone manufacturer in its own right, largely due to the ‘zero-defect’ production system implemented in 1964. Since then, Oktava has retained a strong relationship with the Russian military, producing an assortment of public address equipment, wired intercom systems, warning equipment and aviation headsets. The company would later prove itself to be a forerunner in the design and manufacturing of small-sized phones and compact microphones, one of which was strapped onto the suit of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin as he blasted off into orbit to become the first man in space in 1961.

After the German army failed to push further into the USSR, Oktava’s technicians were able to return to Tula and reconstruct the factory, and began producing mine-detectors, loudspeakers and microphones to assist in the Russian war effort.įollowing the conclusion of World War II, Oktava was again called upon by the Kremlin to create a run of 100-watt loudspeakers, which were installed in Moscow’s Red Square to convey state-endorsed messages to civilians. After beginning to dabble in microphone and loudspeaker design in the late 1930s, the company was forced to evacuate its factories in 1941 to flee the carnage of Operation Barbarossa.

Read up on all the latest interviews, features and columns here.įounded all the way back in 1927 as a radio repair workshop in Tula, Oktava’s origin story is quite possibly one of the most interesting tales in music equipment manufacturing folklore. Take Russia, for example The former Soviet powerhouse is, among many others, renowned for creating top-tier studio gear that sounds incredible and is tougher than a tank, and no brand examples this quite like Oktava does. While many of those aforementioned classics do tend to hail from Europe’s more populous regions, it’d be a poor decision to overlook the output of those studio wunderkinds that reside over in the Eastern Bloc.

From Neumann and Sennheiser through to AKG, Schoeps and beyond, some of the most revered microphones in recording history have originated from the continent, and while some may have since shifted their headquarters to various parts of the world, there’s no denying that their legacies still linger strong back in the motherland. The history and legacy of the European microphone manufacturer.Įurope seems to be the birthplace of several major musical product manufacturers, particularly when it comes to high-end studio microphones.

Oktava mk 319 review