Low end gone on Shure DY 11 (early 55 Fatboy)

M

mosvox

New member
Wondering if anyone can help with this. I have a Vintage Shure DY11 that I love but recently the tone changed drastically. The low end is all gone below 100khz and high end above 8000khz and now it sounds more like a megaphone or cb mike. It seems to come back from time to time however. I'm guessing it's an issue with the mic itself and not my audio interface or logic x software. I haven't tested it with another interface but the mic behaves the same way in GarageBand.
Any ideas?
 
mosvox said:
Wondering if anyone can help with this. I have a Vintage Shure DY11 that I love but recently the tone changed drastically. The low end is all gone below 100khz and high end above 8000khz and now it sounds more like a megaphone or cb mike. It seems to come back from time to time however. I'm guessing it's an issue with the mic itself and not my audio interface or logic x software. I haven't tested it with another interface but the mic behaves the same way in GarageBand.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Are you a bat? Anyway, the coil on the diaphragm is sticking in the magnet gap. Could be some fluid has got in or a tiny piece of crap but likely just the coil former has gone out of shape with age.

Dave.
 
Could be the cable. A lot of those old mics didn't use XLR connections, so it might be a bit more tricky than ususal to swap out if there's a screw on connector to the mic. If the mic's response cuts in and out and you can manipulate it by wiggling the cable around that might be an indicator. That would probably be about the easiest fix if that's the only issue. Could also be a bad wire connection inside the mic, which is a bit more complicated. Could also be a dirty or blown cartridge. Any foam that might be inside the mic may have turned to dust some time ago and could be causing the cartridge to stick. If the actual voice coil is damaged, odds are good the mic is done.

The cable would be the easiest fix if that's the issue. It would be prone to popping and cutting in and out rather than losing bandwidth if that were the case, so a sticking cartridge might be the issue here.
 
To check if the diaphragm is stuck, put your mouth over the end of the mic and gently suck and blow a few times, this sometimes frees it up. No smart comments please.

Alan
 
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