Telefunken started in 1903 in Germany, and was known for its one product that was like none other, the U47. Known for being the world's first switchable pattern condenser microphone, the U47 is ideal for vocals.The designer of this mic later broke ties with Telefunken, and the distribution of the U47 came to a halt. The need for such an advanced mic was soon recognized,and telefunken contracted a new company to replicate it. In 1957 the ELA M251 was born, this microphone is thought to be one of the best sounding microphones ever created.

 

These mics were only in production from 1959 to 1962. After going off the market for a period of time, Telefunken began to catch the attention of the audio community as they realized that there was no other product quite as good. The Wall Street Journal wrote an article in the 1990's citing the original ELA M 251 to be one of the best overall investment holdings of the 21st century. Pretty soon Telefunken’s product was being used by everyone from the Beatles to Justin Bieber!

 

In 2000 Toni Fishman bought the copyrights to Telefunken and opened his own lab in South Windsor Connecticut called Telefunken: Eelektroakustik. Mr. Fishman bought an original ELA M251 and like many of the other owners of this valuable mic, he realized the polar pattern switch was no longer functional. He set out to reverse engineer and reproduce the original technology of this mic. After years of dedicated work they were able to accurately reproduce and replicate the ELA M251 and bring it back to the present generation.

 

Royal Trash set out to visually portray the story of Telefunken’s ELA M 251, and interviewed Alan Veniscofsky - Head of Corporations at Telefunken, Bill Ryan - Senior Audio Engineer at Telefunken/Studio Owner and Travis Bell - Studio Owner/Audio Engineer; all experts in the audio community, have all agreed that nothing beats the sound and quality of preservation. The ELA M 251 is worth the money, even “sounds like butter” says audio engineer and studio owner, Bill Ryan.

 

Preserving this Audio and using it in modern times allows for our generation of the audio community to grasp classic sound that could have been lost if not for Telefunken. Not only does it save this technology but opens jobs in the area, because these mics are manufactured to perfection by hand in the United States.