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The Blue Spark is a FET condenser microphone built into a bottle style body. It has a fixed Cardioid pickup pattern.
It uses an edge-terminated true condenser capsule with a 23mm diaphragm (25mm capsule). This is a new capsule design for Blue, not found in any of its other products to date.
The capsule is mounted in a lollipop head, behind a 2-layer metal mesh grille whose faces parallel the microphone capsule. (Although some early product photos show a perforated metal plate at the front of the capsule, this plate is not used on production units.)
The mic produces only 10dBA of self-noise, measured with the capsule attached to the amplifier circuit. Given the mics low self-noise and high high sensitivity (28 mV/Pa), the Spark would appear to be well-suited to pickup of quiet instruments.
For close miking of loud sources, an external pad might be needed.
A single switch on the mic body, called the Focus switch, alters the response of the microphone in several ways:
According to the published frequency-response graphs, the switch incorporates a high-pass filter: approximately -15dB/octave @ 150Hz. Reviewers describe tonality changes as well.
We believe the switch incorporates a change to the capsules polarization voltage. If true, this would affect the microphones sensitivity and dynamic range. Blue has applied for a utility patent, following which fuller details of the circuitry can be explained.
The amplifier uses a transformerless output circuit.
The mic ships with a pop filter, a shockmount, and a wooden storage case for the microphone. It comes with a 3-year warranty.
