Group Buy Interest?

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:D
there's even some rebranded studio desks (rta i think?)
i didn't realize at first that it was an australian retailer.
well it's one thing to buy from a distributor or manufacturer, but iirc the 310 was actually chance's design
It looks like all the group buy mics are part of the "Legacy" -- but, yes, I remember the 310 as being Chance's design.
 
well it's one thing to buy from a distributor or manufacturer, but iirc the 310 was actually chance's design

Then you wonder why manufacturers are all up in arms over China production. Not so much the low labor costs or questionable Q & A... but it didn't even take 6 months for Chance's design to show up else where.

I don't know if the web store owner even knows, probably just found them listed somewhere, or was pitched the product.

Not sure what the exchange rate is... but I think we got the better deal. :) I've been playing with my ACM 310's as overheads and man, are they crisp.
 
So, yesterday I left the ACM-2 and ACM-3 at my office, since they were obviously sagging. This morning, as I prepared for work, I grabbed a small phillips screwdriver, a pair of tweezers, a box of x-acto knife blades, and two q-tips. It's slow today, so I broke out the ACM-2. Since I might have to put them up in a hurry, I resolved not to take the mics completely apart -- I had to sever the attractive yellow tape holding the inner protective screen in place (probably not a good move). I unscrewed the top clamp plate about halfway, and the ribbon fell away, resting on the bottom plate. I managed to fit the q-tip over the ribbon tip without completely removing the top clamp, then pulled the ribbon out and down the top side of the clamp unit ("top" meaning the part of the mic that's on top when it's positioned right side up, which it wasn't), and then screwed back in the clamps. I may have made it too tight, because there's not much corrugation showing, but it looks a lot better than it did. I put the yellow tape back in place but it sort of wants to peel up from where I cut it - oops. Hopefully not a big deal.

Next, the ACM-3. This one was a little tougher to get apart, but I managed to do so without unduly damaging the yellow tape. I halfway removed the clamp, only to find that in this case, the ribbon was indeed fused to the top clamp. As I "coaxed" it off with an x-acto knife blade, it became clear that it stuck on the edges of the clamp piece, but not the middle. I did slightly damage the ribbon at these points, although I suppose it was really the fusing that caused the damage. It was still in one piece. I had to completely take off the top clamp piece then, because the damaged portions of the ribbon had a tendency to catch on the bottom clamp as I pulled it taught with the q-tip. With the top gone, I still had to moisten the q-tip so that it could pick up the ribbon a bit, but I was able to ease the damaged ribbon over the bottom clamp to the point where the tension looked good, and the damage would be completely inside the clamp. I then replaced the top clamp, leaving a fair amount of corrugation -- looks much better now, and the damaged portion of the ribbon is indeed completely inside the clamp (and also hanging out the other side, I suppose).

We'll see how they sound :) -- anyway, don't know if this will be encouraging (or tragically emboldening) to anyone, but I should say that I've never done anything like this before, and felt a little stupid trying it. Maybe premature to declare victory, having not heard the mics, but I should thank tarnationsauce2 for the incredible pictures and discussion from everyone. I tried taking pictures, but my cameraphone is so blurry that they're just irritating -- wouldn't have added any value to what tarnationsauce2 already posted anyway -- thanks!!!!

edit: they sound good! I did go back an de-tension the ACM-2 a little, which was dumb, because I wasn't paying enough attention. I wound up getting one of the clamp screws stuck under the motor assembly and ribbon, held fast by the magnets -- let the ribbon flop out and pulled out the screw/washer with tweezers. Even after that, no ribbon damage. For us newbs, it's important to realize that those magnets are strong, and that we're generally working with ferrous tools (screwdriver, tweezers, razor blade) that get pulled to the side very easily)
 
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I don't know how or why J Nady didn't copywrite his design.The manufacturer that make our mics will not reveal what other company they make mics for. I did a copywrite on the 310 and the outside shape is deemed a "sculpture" I will be releasing my right to it soon for business reasons Just think how many clones of a C-12, or U-87 do you see out there? How many clones of a 414 do you see? None= copyrite. As far as this DIY ribbon mic goes, I highly recommend getting it. I am. What better way of learning can you get? Almost like someone holding your hand while you build? I'm getting it just to get another POV, ideas, and keep my brain in tune. (Oh,, and I am not affiliated in any way LOL)

Yeah, I released my rights on the 310. It will mean much better deals for all of us in future GB's. I shipped over 200 of them to Austrailia (to be rebranded?)
 
Yeah, I released my rights on the 310. It will mean much better deals for all of us in future GB's. I shipped over 200 of them to Austrailia (to be rebranded?)

Anyone wanna guess who bought them? lol
 
I opened up my ACM-3 (the royer 121 clone) to evaluate the sagging ribbon. It did not appear to be that loose, but I'm no expert on ribbons.

Does anyone have a picture of what a loose and/or proper ribbon arrangement looks like?

Thanks.
 
I opened up my ACM-3 (the royer 121 clone) to evaluate the sagging ribbon. It did not appear to be that loose, but I'm no expert on ribbons.

Does anyone have a picture of what a loose and/or proper ribbon arrangement looks like?

Thanks.

it was quite obvious on mine. They flopped all over the place.
 
I just got back fron vacation. First thing I did was open up my package from Chance...:D:D:D:D:D

Very nice looking. I hope I get a chance to plug them in today.



Question on the ACM-1

Did anybody get an aluminum flight case? Mine came in a tube shaped bag.
 
Did anybody get an aluminum flight case? Mine came in a tube shaped bag.


Someone else just made me aware of this. I too expected the aluminum case. I didn't get any ACM-1's but had some here and checked, and sure enough,, no case. China is still on holiday, but will have to answer to me about that. I'll let everyone know when I hear something
 
I got 2 ACM-3 ribbons over the vacation. The ribbons looked tight with no sagging and even on a DMP3 pre-amp had plenty of signal. How they sound, I don't know yet as I only quickly plugged them in and sighted the meter.
 
Last week I loaned a friend some ACM mics to demo. He was recording a nylon string guitar that had a dull sound to it. He tried his 47 and his royer which faithfully captured the dull sound. He said that he could EQ it, but would rather have the mic do that job without EQ if possible. He tried the "583" and loved it and used it (and doesn't want to give it back LOL) He says it's a bright crispy mic. I have yet to use some of these mics as I am in my normal slow time of the year. Are you guys finding the 583 bright?

Oh yeah, I guess China is still on holiday. No word yet.
 
The 583 is pretty bright, I haven't used it enough to say exactly how bright.
I can say the 580-L is brighter, it is the brightest mic I own. Even brighter than an MXL 990.
 
I've been pretty busy with gigs during the holidays so I finally got a chance to evaluate my group buy mics this past weekend. I took the GB mics along with a few other Naiant and DIY mics I made over to a friend's studio for the "shootout". We used his Mac system running Digital Performer to record through his Mackie Onyx mixer and my Massenberg 8304 mic preamp. Each mic was evaluated in a separate pass. I played a I-VI-IV-V progression on a tenor ukulele while my friend "engineered" each take. Each mic was placed approximately 10" from the sound hole of the ukulele straight-on. Mics used in the shootout were ACM-3, ACM-4, ACM-310, ACM-583, and ACM-670 from the group buy, Scott Helmke's "Alice" with Transsound TSB-165A capsule, Naiant's MSH-1K and MSH-4 (tube), and a couple of "TapeOp" DIYs with the Panasonic WM-60 and Transsound TSB-3015 capsules. We both thought that the ACM-310 and ACM-583 were the best of the bunch, but all mics except the ACM-3 had some nice qualities. I have not opened up the ACM-3 yet, but I think it has a sagging ribbon because I can hear a rattling sound when I gently shake the mic.

My friend will be editing the clips to normalize them and we will post them shortly so you can hear how they sound recording a ukulele.
 
Oh yeah, I guess China is still on holiday. No word yet.

still no word?

i'm trying to hold out on re-tensioning my ACM-3 until china gives some word on how they plan on fixing things...i don't want to risk breaking the ribbon if i don't have to, but this mic is unusable right now with the extensive sag
 
You are wise, I trashed mine and have to wait for replacement and I hope I don't screw that up
 
yea...something tells me that i'll end up trashing it, so i'm hoping that they're willing to send out the entire ribbon assembly to replace it
 
I think they are back from holiday, because I just got an E-mail confirming our meeting at NAMM. I replied and am waiting for a reply.
 
on a sidenote, what's the world come to when chinese factory workers get more vacation time at x-mas than we do? :confused:
 
on a sidenote, what's the world come to when chinese factory workers get more vacation time at x-mas than we do? :confused:
Your boss could afford to give you quite a bit more vacation if you agreed to work at a chinese factory worker salary. :cool:
 
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