Ebay Vintage Mic Deals

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Beezoboy

Home Recording Guru
RCA 77DX Ribbon
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2503791014&category=15198

Neumann Km184 Seq Stereo Pair w/cherry box
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2503561790&category=15198

Beyer M500 Ribbon (like the m260)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2502132080&category=15198
(this one is from Germany so be prepared to pay 40 in shipping)

Sennheiser MD421
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2503184970&category=15198#DESC

AKG 414-TLII
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2503844488&category=15198

To me the first one and last one are the best deals. While not every mic in my list is the original vintage model, they are all good deals and at least save 30% of the normal cost. That RCA 77 is a great deal though and could save you nearly $1000 of the mercenary.com price!! The 414 saves you $360

Beezoboy
 
Yeah, thats a pretty good price for the 77DX. A retailer is of course going to cost more.
I have one I bought off e-bay a year or so ago. I missed out on a really nice one I was going to buy at an estate auction. Nice mic, wonderful sound, but you really need to have a nice room to make it shine.
 
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Yeah if I had that much money, I would buy that thing in a snap. If hadn't have gotten the U87 maybe I would have. :) I am graduating college in about 6 months though, maybe this would be the time to ask for an early graduation present? Hmmmm...

Beezoboy
 
It takes A LOT of gain to drive a 77DX. And I mean A LOT!!!
It's gotta be clean gain too.
So you need to put that much money as well into a pre to use the DX.
Well, half as much again, for a single channel.
 
Very good point by Michael Jones. Any ribbon is going to require a good bit of gain to make it shine. So has anyone snatched these up yet?

Beez'
 
The RCA 77dx will sound best through a vintage RCA tube mic pre for which they were designed if the pre is in great condition and the original transformer is used.
For newer pre's, Harvey Gerst swears his 77 sounds best through the SP VTB-1.
The Great River pres and the Vipre also have lots of clean gain for ribbons.
For voice work, you need a minimum of 60 db of clean gain, louder sources need less but quiet sources might need nearly 70db.
I have a fabulous TV Grey 77dx that was totally re-conditioned by Clarence Kane of Enak.
Still like it better than any other mic I have on my own voice but I once used some U47s that sounded better.
Unfortunately, they weren't mine and I don't have 10gs for one of those and the usually necessary re-conditioning.
 
radioprof - Those gain amounts are pretty consistant with what I'm finding too. Nice to have that confirmed.
I used a Mellina Media through the 77DX once. The results were stellar!

I've heard good things about the RCA tube mic pre's before. I see them for sale on ocassion too, but I'm leary of buying such a vintage piece of equipment, especially when its sold "as is".

I know of a local studio owner who SWEARS by this old Westinghouse board he's got for driving vintage ribbons. I asked Harvey about it one time, he said its a fabulous board. I don't remember the model though.
 
I run my ribbons through an RCA BC3C 8 channel mono tube console.
The RCA schematics are available on the web.
You can build re-creations using new parts for reliability.
The hard part is finding the input transformer because you need the exact one used by RCA to get "that" sound.
Mine has the two tube pre's using 2 -12AU7's.
 
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