Avantone Jetsun Microphone Shockmount

For over half a century, shockmount design has remained largely unchanged. The spider style shockmount, two elastic bands and sixteen contact points all held together in place by tension alone has become the standard used by most manufacturers. This design has worked but is not without its flaws. Black Lion Audio and Avantone Pro worked to improve the design while maintaining the resistant properties of the spider shock mount. This project became known as the Jetsun Shockmount.

The first change made to the shockmount was based on the basic premise of how it achieves vibration isolation, through a dual set of elastic bands with opposing tension. This method achieves plenty of isolation but suffers from the fact that if any one of the sixteen points of contact loose tension for even an instant, the whole shockmount system will instantaneously unravel. The Jetsun solves this dilema by dropping the idea of elastic bands entirely and replacing them with metal bands and rubber fittings isolating them from each other. These rubber fittings provide the same amount of isolation as elastic bands while eliminating the potential for a catastrophic failure.

Another issue created by the spider shockmount design was the inability of a pop screen to be placed close to the microphone itself easily. This is caused by the elastic band and post concept requiring 360* of tension on the microphone at all times. The Jetsun’s rubber fitting design allows all vibration isolation to take place either behind or underneath the microphone, permitting a pop screen to be placed directly against the front of the microphone’s headshell. This makes the sometimes desired proximity effect a more obtainable creative tool while also still providing the benefits of plosive protection.

The last design feature to be upgraded was in the universal potential for the Jetsun. Traditional shockmount design dictates that the inner cage fits the microphone it was designed for and only that microphone. Most microphones made by numerous manufacturers have settled into using the exact same thread pattern to mount the bottom cuff of the microphone to the shell of the microphone. By using the excess thread of this cuff, it allows more microphones to be used with the Jetsun then with the standard tension of a clamp against the body concept as the shockmount compatibility is no longer dictated by a matching diameter of the body.

By approaching and fixing these flaws in the common spider shockmount design, Black Lion Audio and Avantone Pro have not only designed one of the most attractive looking shockmounts in the industry, but also one of the most reliable, functional and universally compatible shockmounts available today.