Recent content by pylet2000

Just a follow up on my intended mods, the only thing my 960 contributes now is just a chassis, body, and a power supply. I used a Jensen paper in oil capacitor, a Cinemag transformer, a GE 6072, and a few various resistors to make the mic. It's a loose interpretation of a U47, and it sounds...

Fortunately, these tubes are probably very decent quality being old military grade parts. JAN tubes are usually pretty solid. So tube swapping likely isn't all that necessary anyhow. :)

My life somehow seems a little more blighted having read this thread to completion. It is a bit of a history lesson on the MSH1 mics and who's who around here, though. So I guess it has some kind of value...

I literally did this just hours ago, and got great results from a stereo pair of SDC's, AT4041's in ORTF fashion. I set up a ribbon a few feet in front of her, to add some body, but it really wasn't necessary. The stereo pair captured a nice presentation.

"I love it when a plan comes together."

+1 Vocals are pretty spiky level-wise. If you set the gain to prevent clipping without compression, the recorded level will be pretty darn small. You're losing bit depth with the weaker RMS signal, and when you do finally add the software compressors to get the level up you'll increase floor...

Yep, large diaphragm condensor mic. 32mm.

The mic's current circuit board is only geared up to handle a single sided (thus cardiod pattern) capsule. There's two wires from the capsule(one from the backplate, one from the gold diaphragm), and only a place for two wires on the circuit board. With the stock transformerless design, you're...

I can speak from experience that the particular shock mount pictured with the item is fairly worthless. The metal is so soft that it readily strips the threads. The clamp barely creates enough tension to stay in place, and the harder you screw down the higher your chances of stripping the...

Excellent! I was hoping that would work out as well for you as it did for me. Helps to validate that I'm not just sniffing glue, and there was a large difference between the two. I'm now in the process of putting together a transformer based circuit a la Phil style. Cinemag transformer, 1/2...

I've used a Telefunken 12AT7 and a GE 12AY7 in the 960, both worked very well with really hot output.

I own one, and it is indeed a decent mic for the money. Especially with a better tube in it. And seeing as how it's no longer produced you can probably get some great deals on the used market, that's the only place you'll find one now I'm thinking.

Yeah, you talked me into it. I'm just far too curious now. What kind of voltage did you charge the back plate with? I see the U47 has about 53VDC, did you go with something similar? I take it the 6205 (5840) has a pretty similar effective plate resistance to the VF14, they seem like pretty...

Excellent! Can't wait to hear what you think of the mod. I think for the costs, this is a fun DIY path to a beautiful mic. Especially if you bought a used 960, you could really put something together fairly cheap. Phil, if I wanted to go with a simple single pattern transformer circuit, what...

Ended up going for a pair of AT4041's, and modded the MXL960 to boot. Found a silly deal on a pair of AT's, so the budget was able to cover both the mod and the pair of SDC's. The AT4041's sound great by the way. Very realistic and smooth in the lows and mids, with a nice sparkly presence in...