Electro-Voice 666 Microphone

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riot100

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Hi Everyone,

I have an Electro-Voice 666, which I obtained that was supposely (?) working, but unfortunately is not.
I want to run a couple of things over here in the forum, (I have trawled the internet and forums for information) before I decide it may the capsule that is faulty.

I made up a female XLR (just the plastic end on it's own) to male XRL with info from various forums and this webpage Electro-Voice 666, 666R, 667

Female XLR pin1 ---> to Male XLR pin2
Female XLR pin2 ---> to Male XLR pin3
Female XLR pin3 ---> to Male XLR pin1

The inside of the Electro-Voice 666 connector is wired as follows:
Pin1 - 150 ohm wire
Pin2 - Blue and Green wires together
Pin3 - white wire

Anyone have these coloured wires? It is different to the information I have gleened from the 'net.

When I connected the home made lead to the 666, and to various pre-amps, and mixing console, I get no sound, dead in fact. Even when I use a SM58 with this 'made-up' XLR lead I get some sound and buzzing.

I also replaced the 150ohm wire with the 250ohm wire, but the same result I'm afraid.

If anyone can advise me on any more fault-finding ideas I'm be much appreciated, especially if anyone has the same colour coded wires in their 666 microphone.

All the best.
 
dunno how to help, sorry, but just wanted to comment that EV's marketing department obviously took a holiday when they named that microphone. I would imagine it was one of their poorer selling models in the more christian religious parts of the world :-)
 
dkelley said:
dunno how to help, sorry, but just wanted to comment that EV's marketing department obviously took a holiday when they named that microphone. I would imagine it was one of their poorer selling models in the more christian religious parts of the world :-)
Click to expand...

It's probably well suited to death metal.
 
brother rat said:
It's probably well suited to death metal.
Click to expand...

Yeah, how cool is that; a 666 mic. Any inverted crosses on it? :)

The best thing to do is measure (ohms) the capsule it'self first. If you get a reading, then logicaly work your way back to the output. I've wasted alot of time working on mics the wrong way 'round myself. If the capsule's dead it's over, and you will have wasted a lot of time.
 
I have heard from another person that this is the same wiring as on their microphone.

Inside microphone connector:
Yellow (250ohms) wire connected to Pin 1
Two green/blue wires connected to Pin 2
Single white wire connected to Pin 3

With a multimeter I am getting a reading between pins 1 and 2 (approx 49ohms, this reading is 25 ohms on the SM58).
I have also checked that the white ground wire is connected to the microphone chassis. It is and reads appropriately on the meter.

No shorts to the other pins either.

Mmmmmmm. Maybe the capsule?


I have not attempted to open up the grille on the top of the microphone yet.

Any advise on how to safely remove this and the capsule?
I believe the two small capsule wires are very delicate.

I have a service diagram that shows grille, dust filter, washers, etc.

But this does not show how to take all the insides out.


Thanks for your reply chrisghost, do you just measure the ohms reading between the two capsule wires?

All the best,
Ralph
 
It's got THE MARK OF THE BEAST on it!:eek: Beware!!:mad:
 
I would start by looking for the ground. Find a wire that has no or little resistance to the metal body of the mic.

Then I'd measure from that to the others and if I found two that had the same resistance to the suspected ground I would assume they are the hot and cold. Then it's a matter of connecting the ground to XLR 1 and the others to 2 and 3.

I would be surprised if the capsule was bad. Those things are the original "you can hammer a nail with it" mics.
 
Forget that. Your XLR adapter is correct. Try the various impedance options. If none of them work then the capsule is bad, the transformer is bad or the wire between them is bad.
 
Hi bouldersoundguy,

Thank you for your reply.
Yep, the wiring on the connector is correct.

My next step was to start to open up the microphone.
I have a service diagram that shows how to remove grille, dust filter, washers, etc.

But this does not show how to take all the insides out e.g. "the coil".

Any advice on how to disassemble the capsule (seems like it screws away from the chassis) and especially the coil, in order to check the wires.

All the best,
Ralph
 
UPDATE for fellow EV 666 microphone owners.

I received a reponse from a very helpful chap called Mike:

"...After removing the capsule carefully so as not to detach the black wires either from the capsule or the circuit board/transformer, detach the wires from the connector and the whole assembly will simply slide out.
You may need to grab the board with a pair of long nosed needle nosed pliers to carefully loosen it and pull the whole assembly out the front.
Make sure you save all the rings, washers, etc and re-assemble according to the exploded diagram..."

Therefore:
I finally and carefully managed to extract the capsule, coil and wires.

The two black wires from the Capsule, go to the Coil.

The Coil has 5 wires from here - yellow (250 ohm), black (150 ohm), red (50 ohm), white and green.

There was a small circuit board (resistor and capacitor network) which also has green, red and black wires, that are also then connected to the corresponding wires from the Coil.

While the components were free from the Microphone chassis, I connected a male XLR as follows:

Pin 1 - white wire= ground
pin 2 - single yellow wire = 250 ohm wire
pin 3 - green wires

Unfortunately again no sound!

Looks like a faulty Capsule - though I looked carefully and no wires seem to be broken, including the very small red wires on the Capsule.

Is there any way to check the Capsule using a multimeter?

All the best.
 
do what craig said on the 1st page.
Measure the resistance across the capsule and work your way back.

If you get full resistance, something's broken.
 
All is not lost even if the capsule is bad. EV has a great service department. They can probably fix your mic. The 666 is a classic and expensive to buy used.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
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