recordinghacks

CardioidBlue Microphones Dragonfly

  Street: $499 / MSRP: $1,099 Cardioid Condenser Microphone

Blue Microphones Dragonfly

Description

Blue’s Dragonfly is a fixed-cardioid, large-diaphragm condenser microphone designed for a neutral, detailed sound. The capsule is encased in an innovative rotating spherical head.

MIX, 2004

The Dragonfly is not entirely transparent — there is a definite coloration to its sound. The mic delivers a very full, rich bottom end with a high end that borders on the bright side. There’s a low-end bump around 90 Hz and another bump about 14 kHz. The midrange, while not bland, is not as emphasized as the high- and low-frequency ranges.

The rotating head allows for easier mic placement; the microphone can function as an end-address or side-address design, or anything in between.

The large-diaphragm capsule uses a single 6-micron Mylar membrane sputtered with a mixture of aluminum and gold. The particular capsule model is noted on Blue’s store website to be their B0 capsule, but the B0 is not a neutral capsule — and in fact the published frequency response graph for the Dragonfly is a nearly-perfect match for the graph of Blue’s B1 small-diaphragm capsule.

We have not resolved this discrepancy, but will update this profile if and when we can. It is possible that the B0’s obvious colorations are tamed by EQ circuits built into the Dragonfly’s amplifier, and it is equally possible that the Dragonfly uses a non-B-series capsule, despite the note on bluemic.com. Or, perhaps the Dragonfly uses a small-diameter capsule, although given the low noise figure (8 dBA), this is unlikely.

The mic’s amplifier circuit is transformerless.

The Dragonfly won both the 2001 TEC Award and an Electronic Musician’s 2001 Editor’s Choice award.

The Dragonfly includes Blue’s “Series 2,” aka S2 shockmount (which is also compatible with the Blueberry and Cactus microphones). The mic and shockmount ship in a wooden storage box.

Mojo Pie

I set impossibly high standards for guitar sounds. I like a shimmery steel-stringed acoustic sound. The Dragonfly puts across this sound perhaps better than any other mic I’ve used. Yet, with some positioning changes, it can also put across a woodsy sound. In getting the mic into position, the integrated shockmount along with the pivoting mic head make it easy to get fast mic placements.

Electronic Musician, 2000

To draw a closer bead on the Dragonfly’s sonic predisposition… I compared the Dragonfly to a well-regarded, cardioid-only condenser in the same price range: the Neumann TLM 103. Overall, the Dragonfly sounded very similar to the TLM 103, but with less presence boosting in the 5 kHz region. On vocals, for example, the TLM 103 had that characteristic Neumann “sizzle”; the Dragonfly, in comparison, sounded flatter and “plainer.” And while neither mic took well to a high-F diatonic harmonica (both sounded shrill in this application), the Dragonfly produced slightly smoother, more agreeable highs… [I]n the bigger picture, the two mics sounded very similar and of equivalent quality, each capturing a tight, very present, and well-defined sound with good depth of field.

The Dragonfly Deluxe features gold trim and a deep-green hand-lacquered finish, and comes nestled in its own cherrywood box. The Dragonfly Deluxe is limited to a run of just 275 units, accompanied by a numbered certificate of authenticity.

Violet JZ4, aka the Blue Dragonfly microphoneThe Dragonfly, like several of Blue’s early products, was the subject of an intellectual property dispute in 2006, when the original manufacturer, SIA Scruples/Violet Design, attempted to register a lookalike microphone with the EU’s “Office for the Harmonization of the Internal Markets” — essentially the EU’s trademark office. The OHIM called Scruples’ registration invalid, awarding the IP rights to Martin Saulespurens of BLUE. For a time, this mic was known as the Violet JZ-4 or JZ4.

Stereo Times, 2000

It has a sound all its own… which, in this case, is fantastic… The Dragonfly floats like a hummingbird and stings like a howitzer.

Because I am bored by equipment reviews that tease you into reading their whole span in order to get to a desired sonic bottom line, I?ll let you cross the review?s finish line right here.

The Dragonfly is an awesome microphone. It is not a panacea for all recording problems. Aside from the glorious DPA 4003 and its mystical kins, what microphone can solve every difficult task a recording person faces? But the littlest, least expensive of the microphones in the BLUE line-up carries a long sonic reach… and it packs a musical punch that is up to any well-chosen placement that a recording cat with good ears and astute experience can toss at it.

The Blue Microphones Dragonfly is also known as: JZ4, JZ-4.

The mic was released in 1999.

Specifications

Pickup Patterns Pads & Filters
Cardioid (21 mV/Pa; 20 - 20,000 Hz)
Capsule Dimensions Impedance SPL/Noise
Diaphragm diameter: 26mm
 50 Ohms (Low) Max SPL: 132 dB
Self-noise: 8.0 dB(A)
Weight Length Max Diameter Interface(s)
630g (22.22oz) 235mm (9.25'') 45mm (1.77'')
  • 3-pin XLR male (1)
Power Specifications
  • Requires phantom power
  • Phantom voltage: 35-48v

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