The K-Tek brand from M.Klemme Technology has long stood for superb quality at prices that any video pro or soundperson can afford. The K-Tek102 Boom is no exception: anyone who needs a boom can now get their hands on quality without having to hock their mic collection.

I was on the hunt for a boom that was lightweight, easy to pack in small cases and tough. The new boom had to have a cable inside, rubber or polymer bumpers to keep it from being noisy when being moved around, a base plug over a hanging cable and some sort of gasket system that would keep sand and dust out of the sections (we do a lot of work in the desert). A friend recommended I check out the K-Tek 102 graphite boom, part of a new series from M.Klemme Technology. The folks at K-Tek agreed to send out the K102 along with a couple of other "economy" boom poles. They also included a KE-110 (Avalon Series) and a KE-89.

A few years ago, I'd worked with a graphite boom and hated it, so I was a little reluctant to try out the pole. But the K-Tek 102 is made of eight layers of graphite, is lightweight, has a coiled cord inside, a base plug and re-ally tough material. When it's not extended, it's also short and compact.

The end of this boom has a polyurethane molded plug with an XLR male receptacle, making it very easy to plug a short cable to an FP22 or other headphone device without worrying about the cable banging on the bottom of the pole. Unlike other boom poles I recently looked at, this plug is molded in, so there is no worry about the plug knocking loose or "mis-fitting" over time. The plug may also be removed to fit an internal phantom power supply, and the pole may also be extended.

The locking rings have what K-Tek calls "captive collett" design to assist in not only keeping the extensions from jamming, but also to keep dirt, dust and sand from gumming up the locking rings.

Since the manufacturer challenged me to push this boom pole to the limit, I did a couple of things no one should ever do. First, I left it in my horse barn overnight during a rain/snow storm to see how it handled the cold and wind, along with the moisture. I did place a ziplock bag over the right-angle female XLR connector that comes out of the reach.

I have to say, I was surprised. The dirt simply wiped off the graphite surface. The locking rings didn't attract any of the hay dust or dirt, and once it was wiped off, there was no feeling of grittiness that accompanies most locking rings that have been exposed to this kind of nightmare. But if you've ever been at a speed competition on the Bonneville Salt Flats, you'll know why this is important to test.

Next on the test was to extend the pole fully with a piece of doweling in place of a mic in the shock mount, and leaned it against a wall. We then "helped" it fall over onto a concrete, wood and rock surface. No dings, bends, crimps or breaks. Now, I don't recommend you go around letting your boom fall over, particularly with a mic in the shock mount, but accidents do happen-especially if you're foolish enough to leave it leaning against a wall at full extension in even the most marginal of breezes.

About the only thing we didn't do with this pole to try to break it was to beat it against concrete or a sharp edge.

Smooth, warm to the touch and uniquely textured, the graphite has a substantial feel-it isn't slick in the hand at all. What's scary is that this 105-inch pole weighs less than my NT4 stereo mic! The pole feels too light when it's collapsed to its 26-inch length, but once it's extended, it balances perfectly with an AT 415 shotgun on the end, mounted in K-Tek's K-SM shock mount.

The internal coiled cord is quite stout; the first few times we fully ex-tended the boom, the top section snapped back into its receiving section and surprised us. However, after we'd been working with the pole for a while, it settled down. The cable is custom-manufactured for K-Tek, and is the same cable found in the brand's more expensive ENG-oriented booms, so you can be sure of a long life from the cable. The main portion of the cable is stored in the larger body segment of the boom pole and extends to meet the reach of the pole, as needed. It's a very heavy cable, so it stays put and doesn't generate the kind of noise, when extended, that other poles with the cables running through them often do.

Happy booming!