6802 Mods

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marik
  • Start date Start date
gareth.h.rees said:
Which do you find to be the most "accurate" representation of you and your wife's voices?
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How do you know it was my wife?:eek::)


Yeah she is...;)

The ribbon mic was the most natural and life like.
Friend of mine borrowed the mic for aggressive female voice. I'll try to get the rec. and post it.

Also, may I ask how much this mod has cost so far? I understand that your capsule is not directly purchaseable (or is it?;)), but if you could give a rough estimate of how much "extra" you've put into this mic that would be great.
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Once I got a bunch of those capsules and now have only few left. If there is demand I can check the supplier and latest prices.

Also, I am working on prototyping my own transformers for this mic of similar quality, but cheaper.

Those two (apart from labor, which for those who know to hold a soldering iron is a great advantage) are major investments.

Do you have any other "commercial" mics to which this mic compares to in terms of sound character?
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I will post it against Gefell MV672/UM70.

earlwgreen said:
Marik,

Also, would these mods work on the ACM1200?
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I don't have the ACM1200 so it is hard to say in greater details, but the principles would be the same.

rodabod said:
Marik, this is the same supply as the "fake" Oktava one which came with the MKL2500!

The connectors are poor quality. Also, check the earth tag which is screwed onto the mains transformer lug. My transformer is laquer coated, so the earth tag was insulated from the case!

I still have a very slight resisdual hum issue with mine, but I'm not sure if it is to so with the grounding. Pin1 and the chassis earth are connected at the XLR on mine.
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Hey Roddy,

Good to see you here participating and thank you for bringing those up. :cool:

The same supply seem to float from mic to mic in many reincarnations and indeed, the connectors DO SUCK.

In private I have already suggested Antichef to make a better cable, as the stock one cost us a failed test recording session.
I suggested Mogami tube mic cable and use nice Neutric 7 pin connectors. Important to note, you will see that two wires in the cable are thicker. Use those for ground and heater.

This mic has some residual hum in my lab (I need to change the wiring, as it has a "nice" loop, which affects some mics and esp. ribbons), but I have not gotten to the PSU yet, which besides this problem will need some voltage adjastment, esp. for tight fig8 pattern control and tube heater.

Best, M
 
rodabod said:
The connectors are poor quality.
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Yeah. The male (pin) side of all the on-cable connectors are built wrong and don't go into the female side without shifting them slightly off center, pushing the pins in, then torquing them so the connector body will line up. I've seen this on both the cable between the supply and mic and the 3-pin XLR cable.

Not all of them are screwed up in this way, so I suspect that the connectors were assembled wrong. When I get around to it, I'll try disassembling the problematic ones and see if I can figure out how to make the pins line up better.
 
How do you know it was my wife?
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Haha! I have no idea! I just looked back through the thread and there's no mention of it!:o Woops:D

The ribbon mic was the most natural and life like.
Friend of mine borrowed the mic for aggressive female voice. I'll try to get the rec. and post it.
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That's interesting - got two ACM3's on order:D

I will post it against Gefell MV672/UM70.
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Thanks. I'm very interested in this mic modding, and its good to have certain references in what to aim for. Summer project will hopefuly be a G7:D

Thanks
Gareth
 
Marik said:
In private I have already suggested Antichef to make a better cable, as the stock one cost us a failed test recording session.
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Any idea if all the cables are identical across the various models?
 
dgatwood said:
Any idea if all the cables are identical across the various models?
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The 6082 and 310 are. Not sure about ACM1200, but very likely the same, as well.

There is no standard for cable for tube mics and everyone does whatever s/he wants.
In general, the difference between different manufacturers will be in the way they ground it (if they do), pin designation for the shield, and running thicker wires (if applicable) for heater.

Best, M
 
Prior to talking to Marik, I had coincidentally picked up a couple premade 15' Mogami 7 pin mic cables out of the bargain (open package) cable bin at a local Guitar Center. I've been using one of them with my 310, and it works great. With the next GB going on, I better start looking for a couple more :)

Now I'm thinking about replacing those connector jacks inside the PSU for the 310, but I hadn't yet noticed a material problem with them.
 
Some more tracks. Now already with PK47 in place.
One with 12AT7 tube:



And another with GE 5star 6072:



Best, M
 
Nice singing!!!

Both the tracks sound amazing to me, Marik. Solo, like that, I like the 12AT7 better, because it has a little less pronounced HF, which makes it easier on the ears (and given that I'm listening to them over and over with cranked headphones, I notice that :) ) -- in a mix, I'm not sure which I'd like better, and it may depend on what else is in the mix, too.

Wow!!!!:eek:
 
Wow just got round to listening to these! Very impressive indeed!


Marik, do you have any experience of modding the Apex 460 / Nady 1150 microphones?

If so, which do you think comes out better post-modification?


Cheers
Gareth
 
+1 on the recordings sounding great. On my headphones the one with the GE tube is a lot hotter than the 12AT7, but when you equalize the volume they sound very close. I would agree the 12AT7 sounds smoother and easier on the ears.

The next obvious question is, when we get our 6802's who do we send them to to get these mods? Marik, hope you're keeping good notes.
 
gareth.h.rees said:
Marik, do you have any experience of modding the Apex 460 / Nady 1150 microphones?

If so, which do you think comes out better post-modifications.
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Yes, I do :)
In fact, I believe, I was the first to post here about Nady, when it just came on the market.
If you use same compenents, same capsule and transformer, there should be not much difference, which (if any) will be mostly due to different grill size and mic body shape and size.
 
guitar zero said:
+1 on the recordings sounding great. On my headphones the one with the GE tube is a lot hotter than the 12AT7, but when you equalize the volume they sound very close. I would agree the 12AT7 sounds smoother and easier on the ears.
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Yes, somehow 6072 in that setup is not nearly as smooth--I feel something did not quite "click" there with that tube...
 
Great work Marik, I can't wait to get my 6082, and start moding it.
 
Here is the last set of tests. The same tune, same recording conditions, same chain, no EQ compression, or any processing.
The first is the 6802 with Oktava MK319 capsule:



Second is a modified UM70 with original PVC M7. Although SS, this one I included just to see if the PK47 and M7 capsules are in the "same family":



And just for fun the last is a highly modified Apex 205 ribbon mic:



It is especially interesting to compare its tonal balance with the first, Oktava capsule track.

So your thoughts, Gentlemen... and Ladys, or course ;)

Best, M
 
Sounds like the PK47 is relatively close to me. Has a bit less high frequencies.
 
It's awesome to hear all these samples - really brings out the differences. Thanks again to you and to Jos (?) for all that fantastic singing!! The MK-319 capsule is good -- that's not too surprising, because I've some nice sounds come through those before.

So far, the PK-47 + 12AT7 has just the sound I was hoping for - like you read my mind. :D:cool:
 
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