electrets...where to buy capsules

[pietro79]

Hey there,
I'm also about to build an electret mic (phantom powered)

I was wondering where to get suitable replacements for the WM-61AY (and/or 60) electrets now that Digikey's discontinued them...

I've heard people mention the TS-60A is a good replacement, but I can't find a distributor in Canada where I live...

jlielectronics is in the states and wants to charge me 23 dollars for shipping a 1 dollar capsule...

I know there are other capsules, but I'd like one with a flat response, like the WM-61AY or TS-60A...

Anyone in my situation that knows the where to look?

Thanks
Pietro

[jerfo]

Originally Posted by pietro79

I was wondering where to get suitable replacements for the WM-61AY (and/or 60) electrets now that Digikey's discontinued them...

I built a couple of the TapeOp omni mics last year and used the WM-61B capsule. The DigiKey part number is P11974-ND. I believe that this was recommended to me by one of the folks on the TapeOp message board, which has been down for quite a while now. They sound great to my ears. The only difficult part was soldering wires onto the pins on the capsule. The pins are very small and very close to one another, so a fine-tipped soldering iron is recommended.

According to the Panasonic industrial site, the WM-61A (DigiKey #P9925-ND) is the same capsule with "solder" connections rather than pins. This one may be easier to deal with, but I don't have any experience with it. Unless the DigiKey inventory is drastically different in Canada than it is in the US, they have thousands of each kind of capsule in stock.

Good luck!

- Jerfo

[pietro79]

you're right! weird, I was certain I'd checked the WM-61AY... I thought they were out of them too, but they have thousands... great. I'm happy!

Thanks,
Pietro

[PhilGood]

I think those are the capsules I ended up using for my TapeOp mics. They're good!