There are some very well respected and wholly irresponsible people on the internet who have talked a lot of bullshit about peluso and saving a rant on that topic and actually having ahem *heard* these things, here's what I can tell you-
The guy has parts manufactured in china. He assembles the capsules however, by hand at his pad in the US. Is it some German Laboratory with people from a rocketry program working next to him, no, probably not, but the price reflects that. Its also not a Chinese labratory inventing the wheel on tuning mic capsules, and the sound of the capsule reflects that as well... JP has taken a lot of criticism for having brass manufactured in china. It would be one thing if he was doing that and selling the capsules for $800 a pop, but he's making them wildly affordable and people should keep this in mind when they offer an opinion of the guy. For what you pay for the capsules, its IMO almost unrealistic to *expect* them to sound good, its a really pleasant suprise to find out that you can build a really great sounding mic that is %100 usable for making a easy to deal with recording and I wouldnt make that statement about any of the budget chinese mics that have flooded the market in the last few years.
I got to hear three mics with his capsules, compared to a real U47. If the only thing that concerns you is the sound that comes out of the speakers and the tools you need to manipulate that, not antique collecting and wise financial investment, the difference between the real U47 and the mic my friend built with the peluso capsule and a jensen transformer was so close it wasnt even funny. Im talking like, a few dollars difference, not seven thousand dollars difference. If you've ever recorded a vocal with a 47 and have boosted some HF eq on the track in mixing, you'd likely be completely happy recording with the mic I heard. Totally usable to the same means...
Are there better capsules out there? Im quite sure there are. Can you make a great mic using the peluso capsules? Ive heard three examples of exactly that. Will it be "just like" a U47 if you chose to make a 47? Well, considering that I havent heard two U47s that sound exactly alike I think in 2004, with the age of U47's in consideration, the claim of "just like" is pretty absurd to start...
The main thing I noticed was that the peluso capsules sound very different than the BLUE capsules, which all have that wierd crunchy 5K thing (not to be confused with horrid chinese 5K peaky thing) which I think is really cool, but the peluso capsules I have heard (I wish I knew which ones the guy used) were smoother than the BLUE capsules but bright in their own pleasing way. My only thought on the brightish quality of the capsule was that the mic had a jensen in it, which for my dollar tends to sometimes put a shiny top on things so Im hesitant to say its the capsule alone, or the combo of the capsule and the transformer, especially compared to a U47 which has a transformer which starts to take a nose dive around what, 4K or someting?
I havent heard the mics peluso is building but after seeing what his capsules can do, Id buy one in a second and get into a mic project with high expectations. Its especially comforting to know that for the money, if my novice mic building hands really screw up, I didnt ruin a $800 capsule, so it also makes the idea of building a mic a lot less scary for someone like me who doesnt have a scientific dust free lab to build a mic in...
Try to keep an open mind on the made in china thing, in this case theres a big difference between having a capsule assembled in china and buying brass rings from a chinese manufacturing company...
dave