AKG D112 Repair

peritus

peritus

The not fountain head
I have a D112 that I bought "non-functioning" and I'm wondering if (like Shure let's you send mics for repair) there's an obvious path to repairing it. I can solder, but I don't want to disassemble it until I have a working theory of the issue.

Here's the seller's description of the issue:

This was a great kick drum mic for me, which I used occasionally from 2008 onward, until it suddenly lost its low end output a couple months ago. It delivers a high-end, tinny kind of sound, and requires you to turn the mic premamp up pretty high to get anything out of it"
Click to expand...

Thoughts on how best to proceed? I'm fine losing that money if that's what happened. Live and learn!
 
Hi,
With those symptoms it's most likely the diaphragm and coil have shifted position slightly, so the coil is rubbing where it should be totally free.
There's usually not a lot you can do with that except replace the capsule.
Unless AKG sell replacement capsules for a lot less than the mic it's probably not worth it.

It's possible, but unlikely, that there's some debris causing the rubbing - If it's wrecked any way there's no harm in very gently pushing the diaphragm straight in, and letting it bounce back, a few times to see if that clears the path.
As far as I know there are no electronics or transformers or anything in there - Pretty sure it's a sealed capsule straight to XLR.
 
peritus said:
I have a D112 that I bought "non-functioning" and I'm wondering if (like Shure let's you send mics for repair) there's an obvious path to repairing it.
Thoughts on how best to proceed? I'm fine losing that money if that's what happened. Live and learn!
Click to expand...

The Capsule (If you can find it) would cost as much as another mic.
 
Never give up until you have a pile of bits on the bench, because quite often the ‘obvious’ fault that’s uneconomic to fix turns out to be something far simpler. Only when you have the dead capsule in your hand do you put the pile of bits in the bin. You could also make a video. I did this years ago and wish iPhones had been around. A dead 112. Insert stage pyro and reassemble. Put it in front of drum kit As an ‘extra’ drum mic and fire it on the final down beat! I wish I’d had that as a video.


seriously though, until you determine the capsule is really faulty and it’s not just a bit of foam lodged in it, or a dry joint, or something else silly, pull it apart and fiddle. You can’t make it worse. You might have done this already I expect.
 
Rob is right-- it's already broken-- you can't do any more damage. A couple years ago, I bought a 'partially working' AKG P420 for almost nothing. The seller described the mic as 'losing signal after a few seconds. The problem was loose board to chassis screws causing a poor ground. Mic has been great ever since.

Take the chance.



~dk
 
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