Repairable, not disposable
Two separate boards, standard components, zero glue. A fault? You replace a part, not the microphone. A V1→V2 exchange programme is planned.
Open hardware audio · Made in France
A studio microphone
you can repair
for life.
The Talas One is a large-diaphragm condenser microphone. Open schematics, standard components, 5-year warranty, published production cost. €150, and the measurements are published — including what is still wrong.
Today a research project: one measured prototype, public plans, no production run. This page prepares the first one — exactly where it stands.
- Type
- Large-diaphragm condenser
- Preamp
- OPA1642 · open circuit
- Power
- 48 V phantom
- Repairable
- No glue · 2 boards
Open schematics
Public KiCad files, complete BOM, repair guide included. You know exactly what you are getting — and you can take it further.
Published cost
Every euro is itemised: parts, labour, margin. The price does not aim to be the lowest, but the most honest.
Hand-built, in France
Assembled and tested one unit at a time. A 5-year warranty where competitors offer 1 to 2 years.
At €150, where the Talas One sits
| Criterion | RØDE NT1 | AT2035 | Lewitt 240 | Talas One |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | €108 | €150 | €149 | €150 |
| Repairable | No | No | No | Yes |
| Public schematics | No | No | No | Yes |
| Warranty | 10 years* | 1 year | 2 years | 5 years |
| Made in | Australia | China | Austria | France |
* on registration. This table does not compare sound: our measurements are further down, with their flaws. And it compares a prototype to three microphones that are actually sold: the €150 is a target price, not a price charged.
Our measurements, flaws included
Campaign of 3 June 2026 on the prototype, against a RØDE NT1-A. Protocol, raw captures and reports: everything is online. We also publish what is wrong — that is how an honest measurement is recognised.
| Measurement | Talas One (prototype) | RØDE NT1-A |
|---|---|---|
| Self-noise (A-weighted) | −88.5 dBFS(A) | −84.5 dBFS(A) |
| THD at 50 Hz | 4.0 % | 0.02 % |
| THD at 100 Hz | 0.30 % | 0.02 % |
| THD at 250 Hz | 0.28 % | 0.03 % |
Two things to read before the table. The noise figure makes us look 4 dB better, but the gains were not matched (−12 dB): our noise is lower because our whole signal is. So it is not an advantage, and the report says so. And the 4 % distortion at 50 Hz is real: it is the signature of a bias stability fault, analysed and corrected at board level on the next revision, which has not been manufactured yet.
Full report → · Known limitations → · Measurement tooling (AGPL v3) →
All of this can be checked
The guided tour takes the Talas One apart in fifteen stops: the photos of the prototype, the two boards, the test bench built to measure it, what went wrong, and a glossary for anyone new to this.
It is far longer than this page, and that is deliberate: a sales page asserts, a tour shows. That is where we can be proved wrong.
The price, with nothing hidden
Nobody in audio does this. Here is where your €150 goes — figures taken from our actual Mouser & PCBWay invoices.
Social contributions & payment fees−€23
Materials−€60
Packaging, cable, after-sales provision, depreciation−€21
Left before paying for the work€46
€46 are left before paying for the assembly — which has never been timed. At €12 an hour, two hours of work leave 22. No hidden margin: what is left pays the maker and keeps the workshop running.
— The Talas manifestoAudio equipment is designed to die.
Inaccessible solder joints, proprietary parts, locked schematics.
Talas refuses that.A tool you can open, understand, repair and pass on. Made to last longer than the fashion that sold it.
Talas does not only make microphones
Talas is a workshop, not a product range. The microphone is its first object; it is not the only one.
The rule is the same everywhere: publish the plans, publish the costs, and build nothing you cannot take back control of. Applied to a microphone, it gives the Talas One — open schematics, standard components, repairable for life.
Applied to a service, it gives Veza: a platform where musicians release their tracks, work on them together and sell their work. Self-hosted, no data resale, no algorithm deciding who deserves to be heard, with the commission displayed rather than buried in terms and conditions.
Two objects, one workshop, one refusal: hardware designed to die, services designed to trap.
Where it stands, honestly
The Talas One is today a research project: a prototype that records, published measurements, boards in their third version. Nothing is for sale, and nothing can be.
Three things would take this project to a first production run:
| What is needed | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| The 3rd version of the boards, manufactured and measured | The files are ready. They have not been sent for manufacturing yet. |
| A microphone body designed for this project | Not started. The prototype runs in a salvaged body. |
| The workshop registered | Micro-enterprise being set up. Without it, no deposit is legal. |
None of the three is done. Until they are, the only thing we can offer is a waiting list — and the €150 announced above is the target price for this first run, calculated from real invoices. It is not a price charged yet.
1st run · nothing is for sale yet
Be there for the first run.
The first run starts when there are enough people for it to make sense — not on a date decided in advance. Leave your email: you will be told first, at the launch price, and you will have a say in the finish.
Want more than waiting? Fifty microphones are given away to fifty people chosen for their alignment with the project. The Founders programme →
Soon
Pre-order with a deposit — open as soon as the workshop is registered. People on the list will be told first and will get the launch price.