I have been building microphones, at first for my own use as a location sound recordist, for more than 30 years now. Electronics has been a hobby since childhood and when I started out as a recordist I knew I could build better microphones than I could afford to buy.
I built my first ambisonic microphone more than ten years ago. But the real breakthrough came when I mounted them on a stem on top of the Zoom H2 recorder.
Small, readily available 4 channel recorders and high quality 3d printing enabled me to make the capsule arrays both more accurate and more rugged and make the whole set up extrememly light-weight and portable. This has made ambisonic recording more accessible and versatile than it was in the past.
After a two year partnership with Embrace Video during which we made and sold some 200 microphones, both Brahma-in-Zoom and standalone, I moved to Bangalore, and set up small-scale production. The aim is to keep the scale small, so every microphone is hand assembled and tested at every step. Paradoxically, it also helps to keep the costs low. There are very few overheads compared to establishing and running a factory, even a very small one. If demand forces me to expand, I intend doing it in a way I can continue to listen to every microphone that is made.