AT825 Stereo Microphone - Still Available?

[Andy Wilkinson]

I've got my sights set on this and tried ordering it from a good UK supplier who has just told me it's out of stock and "will get back to me." So then I tried a bit of web crawling and this suggests this model MIGHT have been be discontinued ("no longer available") by Audio Technica. It's still listed on their website so I sure hope not!

Anyone out there know anything about this?

[David Ennis]

It's a popular mic, and the nature of the business is that many classics much older than the AT825 are still going strong -- I can't think of any reason AT would discontinue it.

B&H ships worldwide if you can't find it over there.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...icrophone.html

[Jack Walker]

The mic is still listed as current by Audio-Technica:
http://www.audio-technica.com/cgi-bi...%3A+Stereo

And AT does have a "discontinued" page, where the mic is not listed:
http://www.audio-technica.com/cgi-bi...scon/discon.pl

The mic should be available and probably is just out of stock.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Great news. Thanks David and Jack for your assurances!

[Andy Wilkinson]

Just to close the loop on this. This is the e-mail response I've just received from my UK supplier. He also asked if I wanted to cancel the order or wait - I've told them I will wait!

"I have just had an update with regards to the AT825. Audio Technica cannot find any of these in Europe. They expect to receive a shipment mid to end-of February. Apologies for this situation, normally AT hold adequate stock of their Mic’s."

So you lot out there (who are EU based) must have been buying a lot of AT825's recently then!!!!

[Andy Wilkinson]

Well, despite AT promising that these would be available by the end of February here in Europe I'm still waiting for delivery. If this goes on much longer I'll start looking for a good condition one second hand or buy a Senny.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Well, I finally got an answer about this much awaited mic after waiting for it for 2 months now. This is what my chosen supplier told me about it tonight...

"I do apologise for this situation.

I have been chasing Audio Technica with regards to this microphone. Today, finally they tell me that the AT825 is due for replacement. This is not expected until the end of the year. I have been waiting for our Rep to get back to me with the possibility of sourcing one of these Microphones from abroad, but as yet he has not come up with anything. I will chase him again tomorrow."

I'll see if they can get me one or I'll buy one from B&H in NYC (or buy a Senny stereo instead.)

[Ty Ford]

Probably a ROHS issue in Europe. That's why you don't see Lectrosonics there.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Andy Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by Ty Ford

Probably a ROHS issue in Europe. That's why you don't see Lectrosonics there.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Thanks Ty....I had n't thought of that but you could well be right since we who live in the EU seem to live in a very beaurocratic environment these days.

For those that don't know this is what ROHS is about. By the way, I was n't going to swallow this new microphone anyway!!!!.....:=)

"The RoHS Directive stands for "the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment". This Directive bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants."

[Ian Savage]

Just noticed one on there and from the time I write this it shows as having 7 hrs or so left.

[Ty Ford]

couldn't you have one of our online places mail one to you>
B&H for example?


Regards,

Ty Ford

[Andy Wilkinson]

Ty,

yes, I had that as plan B as they are $350 at B&H...a good price for us Brits....but, I know from experience that by the time I've paid shipping and UK import taxes it gets quite a bit more than that!

Plan A was successful!!! - I got the one on eBay UK this evening (I've been watching it for a few days now - Thanks BTW to Ian for the pointer to make sure I knew of it.)

For the record I got it for 200 quid which I think is a fair price for a second hand one since the last AT825 went for exactly this amount on eBay UK in January - I just missed out on that.....I was dithering over trying to secure a brand new one (which, when it was supposedly available, was going to be 293 quid.)

Now that we know that the AT825 is discontinued over here in the EU it will be interesting to see what AT replace it with later this year.

Can't wait to get this AT825 and use it with the Fostex FR-2LE we've got!

[Andy Wilkinson]

Just to close the loop on this.

In the end we got TWO AT825's. A second one came up on eBay and I managed to get it for 120 quid. In my opinion, this was an absolute bargain for such a good stereo microphone (especially since when this one arrived yesterday it was in mint condition!) The price new for AT825's in the UK was about 290 quid when they were still available. Latest news I have (information from Kings Audio, Poole) is that the replacement AT stereo mic is "supposed" to be available in the UK in June. I've only done a bit of testing so far (with one of these AT825's plugged into our Fostex FR-2LE) but I have to say I'm very, very happy and can see we will be using these mics a lot for recording some of the superb medieval choral/organ music we have access to for our amateur video work. Note that the picture shows the AT825 mounted in a Rode NTSM3 suspension mount (about 30 quid in the UK) which has a shoe and thread attachment at the bottom allowing it to be easily mounted on all sorts of stands. In case you're wondering, I did not set the Fostex into record standby mode for the picture which is why there is nothing on the meter bars!

Thanks to everyone for your advice along the way. We now have some "seriously good kit" that allows us to circumvent the limitations of the HDV audio format and all the issues that on camera mics bring by much better mic placement in with the action (we still use camera shotguns as back-up, as well as a well placed Zoom H2.)