any recent Mic Parts builds? and what's Dachman?

CoolCat

CoolCat

Well-known member
I was reading about DIY builds and then a few say its just cheaper to buy a Dachman or Warm....maybe a GoToToolz audio mic comes in at the bottom for pre-builds.

Curious what anyone's DIY experience was like in hindsight. Would you do it again or just buy a MXL to save cash?

Dachman seems to be advertising everywhere on my sites. $399 for a cardiod only U87i with some good parts, born from Mic Parts?

ok...back to surfing
 
I read the DIY microphone threads and the thing that always amazes me is that no matter what the manufacturer makes, someone always has a fix for whatever they think is wrong. It's the wrong value cap, a resistor needs to be changed, the capsule sucks and should be be replaced. It ALWAYS, without fail, makes a massive improvement. 99% of the time, there are no measurements done to confirm the fix. It all just sounds wonderful now.

And it's always better to buy parts (most from China) and put it together yourself that to buy a cheapo mic from China.

Guitar players are much the same. If you use Grover tuners, they need to be Klusons. If it has Lollar pickups, you need Bare Knuckles, but if you have Bare Knuckles it needs Lollar Low Wind Imperials. (anything except those crummy Seymour Duncans, right?) If the bridge is a Pinnacle then a Tone Pros will sound better. If it's a Tone Pros, it really needs a Faber.

If you have the tools to properly build and test things, then by all means you can probably build something usable, maybe even good. I don't try to redesign or build equipment any more than I would try to blueprint an engine without the proper skill and equipment (which I don't have).
 
that made me laugh, yeah a lot of this is based on emotions.. not data. But the gear heads want to see Cinemag slapped on a Warm or a Lundhall ..
the tubes too matter. Then the big mystery "the capsules" ...I think I read 3U is a monk living in an unknown cave making the capsules for everyone but no one is supposed to tell.
 
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Yeah, capsules are impossible to clone. Only the fairy godmothers in Germany have the knowledge to assemble them perfectly. Just because you have a laser scanning machine that can map a part in 3D and a CNC machine that can mill metal parts to tenths of a micron doesn't mean you can duplicate a German masterpiece.

Rode has some video tours of their plant, and Peter Freedman shows how the machinery he has can measure the tension of the diaphragm, and they can measure the resonance frequency of their capsules to make sure everything is on target. They can machine parts to incredible accuracy and do it again and again. Their resources mean they can make very good consistent mics for very reasonable prices. But because they don't charge you $3000 or $5000 for their products, they must be crappy.

Costing a lot doesn't guarantee that something will work.
 
I love that RODE factory tour video and watched it a few times. Amazing.
Neumann had a little tour with Producer like a Pro, a walk through, pretty good too.
 
TalismanRich said:
I read the DIY microphone threads and the thing that always amazes me is that no matter what the manufacturer makes, someone always has a fix for whatever they think is wrong. It's the wrong value cap, a resistor needs to be changed, the capsule sucks and should be be replaced. It ALWAYS, without fail, makes a massive improvement. 99% of the time, there are no measurements done to confirm the fix. It all just sounds wonderful now.

And it's always better to buy parts (most from China) and put it together yourself that to buy a cheapo mic from China.

Guitar players are much the same. If you use Grover tuners, they need to be Klusons. If it has Lollar pickups, you need Bare Knuckles, but if you have Bare Knuckles it needs Lollar Low Wind Imperials. (anything except those crummy Seymour Duncans, right?) If the bridge is a Pinnacle then a Tone Pros will sound better. If it's a Tone Pros, it really needs a Faber.

If you have the tools to properly build and test things, then by all means you can probably build something usable, maybe even good. I don't try to redesign or build equipment any more than I would try to blueprint an engine without the proper skill and equipment (which I don't have).
Click to expand...

I definitely got a kick out of your post. I didn’t do an LOL, but it certainly got me to smile.

People have been hot ridding stuff for ages.
It’s fun and sometimes it makes something better sometimes not so much.

Early on I bought a Torres ‘Blaclkface’ kit for a 70s champ. A few resistors, and some cap changes and bam! Silverface to Blackface! ……………except in the real world. I paid a pretty penny for the kit too, almost a hundred bucks. Of course I had to justify my purchase and defend its ‘goodness’

And then one day I got to compare it side by side to a real blackface. Oh well…..

:lol:
 
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