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[Mickeyrouse]

I'm considering acquiring one of David Bock's mics, and am curious about the elliptical capsule used in the 407 and 507 mics. Have they been in service long enough to determine if they are a breakthrough, a gimmick, or just a novel approach? Not being a physicist, I could imagine a scenario in which the small part of the ellipse is friendly to transients, while the the large part is low frequency happy. But does it really work that way? And as so often happens, while good things may occur, one often encounters unforseen problems: phase coherency between the varying distances from the center to edge? I assume they are Thiersch-made, but there may be other independent German capsule fabricators. How about the the transformer? Cinemag? Jensen? TAB Funkenwerk?
  Or should I be safe with his 251?

[aremos]

The 407 does not have that capsule that is in the 507. I tried both and was impressed with the 407 (Neumann 47 flavor) but not with the 507.

If you like the 251 sound (AKG) then that one would be the obvious choice.
The 195 is impressive for the money.

[klaus]

I would not pay too much attention to capsule construction. David's elliptical capsules have been around for a while, so if there were fatal design, construction or durability flaws in these capsules, they would be known (and probably corrected) by now.

Instead, I would start the decision-making process with intensive listening tests, and with a known high-quality mic as baseline constant and test comparator. I would conduct the tests in a listening environment, and on playback equipment, you are intimately familiar with.
In addition, to make the try-outs easier, David's distributor, Brad Lunde, is known for his generous return policy, if things don't work out so there is little risk of being stuck with a mic that does not perform for you.

I am confident that, after a thorough test under circumstances in your control, the relative advantages or disadvantages of these mics will become quite apparent, and a sound purchasing decision based on practical experience can be made.

[J.J. Blair]

The 507 had the best low end response of any mic I compared it against, by a wide margin. The rest of the frequencies sounded nice and clear, as well. If the capsule were the reason for that response, I don't know, but it really was something unlike any other mic.