Apex 180 VS MXL 603 for modding

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Disease8

Disease8

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I bought a pair of Apex 180's to mod and was wondering if they are much different from the stock MXL 603's. The main reason I wonder is that people seem to like the stock MXL's and I do not like the stock Apex's. They do not have any hogh end and sound wooden and nasal. Is this just because I have more taste than the average joe or are they actually much different?

One more question. How the bloody hell do you get it open? I have a small screw driver and it does not like the screws at all just damages them, doesnt have enough grip to undo them. Any hints?

Cheers.
 
The problem is the grill across the front of the cardiod capsules.
The Nady CM90 model has exactly the same design / problem.

The 185 pair comes with omni capsules, and it is easy to hear
a great difference just by swapping those in place of the
cardiods.

If you feel like investing a bit more in the units, you can have
them modded:

Award-winning microphone engineering from Michael Joly

Micheal also offers electronics upgrades and other mods as well,
for this popular style of SDC mics.
 
Also, regarding opening:

The screws must be driven IN, the thickness of the tube.
Then, the insides will slide out. Counterintuitive, but saves
having tiny loose screws bouncing around.
 
NoahF said:
Also, regarding opening:

The screws must be driven IN, the thickness of the tube.
Then, the insides will slide out. Counterintuitive, but saves
having tiny loose screws bouncing around.
Click to expand...

Right, reverse threads!
 
HEY! Thanks for the reply! I don't think you answered my question though... I was asking if the STOCK 180's are different in sound to the stock mxl 603's?

Ok so i have to screw them the wrong way???? To open I screw anti clock wise?

Thanks guys !! :-)
 
NoahF said:
The problem is the grill across the front of the cardiod capsules.
The Nady CM90 model has exactly the same design / problem.

The 185 pair comes with omni capsules, and it is easy to hear
a great difference just by swapping those in place of the
cardiods.

If you feel like investing a bit more in the units, you can have
them modded:

Award-winning microphone engineering from Michael Joly

Micheal also offers electronics upgrades and other mods as well,
for this popular style of SDC mics.
Click to expand...


I know about micheal joly I want to do as much as i can on my own as I would like to learn about electronics :-)

Just replacing some caps will make a big difference apparently :-)
 
Sorry if I didn't make it clear when I wrote:

"The problem is the grill across the front of the cardiod capsules.
The Nady CM90 model has exactly the same design / problem."

The Apex units do sound different from the MXL 603, and the
most obvious difference is due to the difference in the way
the designs vary at the capsule openeing.

The MXLs have a mesh, where the Apex and Nady have a
"grill", with a mesh behind that.

After the mod (link above) the grill will be gone.

I got the impression you would be doing the electronic
mods yourself.

HTH
Noah F
 
Yeah it wasnt clear when you said it because you didnt mention what you were talking about.
It would have made sense if you said "the problem with the Apex 180 is...etc" because you could have been talking about the MXL I dont know anyway dont be petty. (I thought maybe people would have grown up on this forum since I left it but apparantly not).

I am planning on doing the electronics indeed. I Know about Miceal Joly I am not going to send it to him to remove the grill its to expensive. But we'll see. So it works out better to just use the omni capsule? I wonder how easy it would be to remove the grill?

Cheers.
 
Could prove interesting on your first try for we all have a Frankenstein microphone in the back of our lockers that we are proud of!
 
moresound said:
Could prove interesting on your first try for we all have a Frankenstein microphone in the back of our lockers that we are proud of!
Click to expand...

Coool lol!

Isn't it quite a common mic to mod the 180/603?


I am looking forward to it might buy a "kit" on ebay off of one of the member of this forum. Just to make it even easier lol...
 
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