Just bought the cheapest pair of condenser out there! £30! 173.844's

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Disease8

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For an experiment I bought the two cheapest mics I could find £32! They are called Skytronic 173.844 catchy eh? Two mics for £32 they are going to be horrid probably lol! But I like cheap tacky stuff! Well I really wanted them to open up and have a little mod maybe change some internal components, improving the capacitors seems like the way forward although with this mic the capsule is probably terrible anyway. But its a great way to learn about electronics. Will post my findings soon.
 
These are the specs:

I love the honesty saying plus or minus 20% on the impedance?
Isn't that a lot?
And 4% on the frequency response?

Part Number 173.844
MINIATURE CARDIOID CONDENSER MICROPHONES (TWIN PACK)
A pair of miniature cardioid condenser microphones housed in a padded carry case with holders. Their compact dimensions and ultra-high sensitivity makes them ideal for many applications, ranging from overhead drum mics, discrete pick-up in conference and interview situations. The microphones feature a -10dB attenuation and bass cut switch and require phantom power for operation.

Unidirectional, Cardioid condenser
Dimensions 80 x 19mmØ
Impedance 200 ohms (±20%)
Sensitivity -35dB
Weight 25g
Frequency response 25Hz - 19kHz (±4%)
Microphone:Connector XLR
Phantom 9 - 48V
 
I have not seen sufficient evidence that Karma ever really sold 1000 at $0.99. If you go back to the summer of 2006, nobody posted about having them until around August or September, when they were $5. I think Lynn Fuston may have reviewed an early pair, but other than that you can't drop 1000 microphones on the market in a month and have no user discussions on the internet whatsoever. I'd guess it was maybe 100.
 
I picked up 3 of the Karma's not too long ago and was blown away at how HOT they are :eek:
Got em shipped for $30. :cool: I'm ok with that.
I put a couple on my toms and they almost acted as OH's. Put the third on my guitar cab about 3 feet back blended with a 57.
Tracked my newest tune with em if someone gets curious. Says The Man on my myspace sig...
:D
 
Dogbreath said:
I picked up 3 of the Karma's not too long ago and was blown away at how HOT they are :eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, they threw one in for free when I picked up a backordered order locally at their guitar shop. Hot doesn't begin to cover it.... I couldn't pad the input enough to use it for close piano recording at all. :D
 
The one I have (second version) is -32dBV/Pa, about 3dB hotter than your typical condenser, doesn't seem like it would be that much of a fuss :confused:
 
mshilarious said:
I have not seen sufficient evidence that Karma ever really sold 1000 at $0.99. If you go back to the summer of 2006, nobody posted about having them until around August or September, when they were $5. I think Lynn Fuston may have reviewed an early pair, but other than that you can't drop 1000 microphones on the market in a month and have no user discussions on the internet whatsoever. I'd guess it was maybe 100.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, but . . . Yeah, well, there was this guy that dropped a couple hundred of these MSH-4 mini-tube mics on the market for way under a hundred dollars and the net didn't buzz anywhere near what it should have! And then this guy goes and gets the gear-saliva goin' with a proposed new "X-V" version of this mini-tube mic and then, maybe because lack of buzz, and just because he's a human being, livin' in the same time-continuum as the rest of us, he has to cancel the project . . . but I wonder, since he is custom building his new mic models, if he might consider taking custom orders for the MSH-4 (or X-V prototype) mics?

Paj
8^?
 
Paj said:
You're probably right, but . . . Yeah, well, there was this guy that dropped a couple hundred of these MSH-4 mini-tube mics on the market for way under a hundred dollars and the net didn't buzz anywhere near what it should have! And then this guy goes and gets the gear-saliva goin' with a proposed new "X-V" version of this mini-tube mic and then, maybe because lack of buzz, and just because he's a human being, livin' in the same time-continuum as the rest of us, he has to cancel the project . . . but I wonder, since he is custom building his new mic models, if he might consider taking custom orders for the MSH-4 (or X-V prototype) mics?

Paj
8^?
Click to expand...

Sure it buzzed. That was kinda my point; if I sell 200 of those in a year, and I compare the Google hits to what the K-Micro showed as of August 2006 after supposedly moving 1,000? I mean now the K-Micro has tons of hits, but it probably has shipped several thousand units. But not in the summer of 2006.

Anyway, sorry, no, no more tube mics. I had plenty of interest (some guy just asked today), but it wasn't that good, and I decided I didn't want to deal with the hassle anyway. I had a better idea for a new mic which I released instead.

Next up is a guitar cabinet and maybe amp . . . time to branch out a bit.
 
Paj said:
OK . . this should start something . . .

http://www.karmamics.com/shop/K-Micro-Matched-Pair.html

The first 1000 of these went for $1 each. I bought 4 at the later inflated price of $5 each.

BTW, doesn't your price in GBP work out to be the same as the price of Behringer C2 or CAD 217 mics?

Paj
8^?
Click to expand...

No man C2's are £50 and not heard of the others...

I don't know if those Karma mics are the same the picture is so small I can't see lol
 
just got home with them

Ok on opening I am first shocked at how tiny they are! I really didn't tweak they would be this small, when it said miniature microphone I thought they were normal SDC's.
Should have really paid more attention to the specs :rolleyes:


I would be interested to know if they are the same as the Karma ones and also upset to find out they are or were $5. You get everything so much cheaper in the states. Have a look at the pictures and tell me if they are the same.

Just got to restart laptop to get sound card on. BRB
 

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Checked them out

First sorry about the terribe massive pictures thats just how my phone decided to take them today.

Just tried to open one of the mics, can't work it out I unscrewed the only screw and twisted of the end with the grill in it but couldn't work out how to get the internal electronics out?

Proably a really bad idea buying these mics to mod lol they are to small to do anything.
 
Those a definitely not the Karmas, those are cardioid and the K-Micros are omni. The K-Micro is also roughly half as long.

If you get it open, you will probably find SMT parts, including I would imagine all ceramic caps. Some of those caps will be filter caps and therefore fine; but there will be two or three coupling caps that are more critical. You can get film cap replacements, but you have to be rather good at SMT as film caps are, well, plastic, so they melt quickly.

Although it is possible to fit an entire thru-hole circuit in that space, for issues of manufacturing cost I'd imagine it's all SMT. I have trouble understanding why most Chinese mics aren't mostly SMT now, it's much cheaper to assemble and the majority of well-known first-world brands have all gone to SMT.
 
Half as long they must be tiny! What's SMT stand for?

I tried out the little mics tonight on some vocals, my friend Daggerfish rapping. i have to say I was very impressed with the sound of these mics. Their polar pattern concerns me though it seems to be so broad its meant to be cardoid but its very wide cardoid. Seemed to pick everything up, would be good as a room mic but not for live it would feedback.
 
mshilarious said:
two or three coupling caps that are more critical. You can get film cap replacements, but you have to be rather good at SMT as film caps are, well, plastic, so they melt quickly.
Click to expand...

Film replacements like polyester? Sorry I can't remember what they are called. How do I know what capacitance I need?

Thanks for your help by the way...And any suggestions as to how I would get into the mic? It looks like the capsule is wired into a lump of black wax from the front and I can't pull it out from the back, i don't want to pull on the XLR pins too hard.
 
Here's the recording

Hey I recorded last night here are the results, sorry there is a delay effect on the vocals (come in after 1 min) but it will give you an idea. I was shocked by the quality, it seems very clear and detailed considering the cost. I would love to compare to the C2. As I say the only thing that really put me off was the wide polar pattern.

Its the song Root Protection on my myspace page...
 
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