more chinese anyone?

P

paddyponchero

New member
Just got the new special offers from German giant 'Thomann'

What caught my eye was their own brand SC150 which comes with 3 interchangeable capsules for 105 yoyos (including 21% Irish Tax .. grrrrr). I know that many of their own brand mics are made by SE Electronics and this one sure bears a resemblance to the SE2A (no shockmount though)

http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/thoiw6_artikel-167861.html

Also this caught my eye - could be a great one for modding

http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/thoiw6_artikel-167155.html
 
I recently bought a pair of the sc100s (including 21% Irish Tax) and I got two completely different microphones to what I was expecting. The pictures on the website resemble the JoeMeek JM27, but I got SE copies. I'm delighted with them.

http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/the_tbone_sc100ii_stereoset_prodinfo.html?iwid=6

Mine look like this, except with a -10dB switch and an 80Hz (I think) cut switch:

http://www.audioland.fr/html/produits/seemics/se2.html

I believe SE recently upgraded their whole SE line so thats an old picture. (a few months)

I'll try to sort a sample for you just to give you a taste of them. I have no frame of reference since they were my first mics but they sound great through my Yamaha MG10/2.
 
DJ_Mixhousedude said:
I recently bought a pair of the sc100s (including 21% Irish Tax) and I got two completely different microphones to what I was expecting. The pictures on the website resemble the JoeMeek JM27, but I got SE copies. I'm delighted with them.

http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/the_tbone_sc100ii_stereoset_prodinfo.html?iwid=6

Mine look like this, except with a -10dB switch and an 80Hz (I think) cut switch:

http://www.audioland.fr/html/produits/seemics/se2.html

I believe SE recently upgraded their whole SE line so thats an old picture. (a few months)

I'll try to sort a sample for you just to give you a taste of them. I have no frame of reference since they were my first mics but they sound great through my Yamaha MG10/2.
Click to expand...

I was tempted with a pair of those myself, I too thought they were the same as the jm27. It's interesting that you got a different pair of mics, do you think they are properly matched or just two in a box?
 
I'm no mic expert, but they seem well matched... The stereo image never jumps to one side anyway (ie the mics have equal sensitivities) I'm amazed they never updated the picture. I even got their hot deals catalogue and they're described as having "a somewhat meeky design." And that was the August catalogue... I bought the mics in June.

They really need to lift the fog on their whole t.bone range. There's no manuals or anything with them and no reviews so you really don't know what you're getting, as my experience proved.

Heres that sample. 128kbps so its not the best quality ever. You can hear my CPU fan in the background too (recorded this ages ago, when i was such an amateur...)

http://www.eirways.com/cannonball1.zip
 
Yeah I'm still very wary of them I would at least like to see a frequency response and sensitivity. I assumed you'd get a manual with them! They are so vague that you'd have to wonder if they're being put together with parts that didn't make the grade at the Felio factory.
Even though you got a different pair I'd still not be surprised if I ordered a pair and got the 'meeky' ones!
That's a nice sound on cannonball btw. (I was expecting the breeders :D ) Do you play around the place?
 
Well I'm delighted with them, so I'd imagine the SC150 is a great mic. My German isn't great, but a few German home recording forums I was looking at seemed to think they more than did the job for the price...

As for the retro, I dunno, it seems very generic, as you suggested, great for modding, and because we're Irish, Thomann is the ONLY place for mics. I laughed like a muskateer at the prices in Cork City. Add about 30-50% on average...

I took a couple of pictures of my mics. Look at the SE resemblence:

http://tinypic.com/3u0ec
http://tinypic.com/3u0i1

They're definitely chinese made, but I understand SE run their own factory in China, as opposed to using contract manufacturers like Feilo, so they're different to the Meeks, ADK's, Nady's etc. etc. I really wish I knew where Thomann stand...

I'm not into performing yet, but hopefully I should get into it soon. That great Cannonball sound came courtesy of a new set of Martins. Ahh yes.
 
DJ_Mixhousedude said:
Well I'm delighted with them, so I'd imagine the SC150 is a great mic. My German isn't great, but a few German home recording forums I was looking at seemed to think they more than did the job for the price...

As for the retro, I dunno, it seems very generic, as you suggested, great for modding, and because we're Irish, Thomann is the ONLY place for mics. I laughed like a muskateer at the prices in Cork City. Add about 30-50% on average...

I took a couple of pictures of my mics. Look at the SE resemblence:

http://tinypic.com/3u0ec
http://tinypic.com/3u0i1

They're definitely chinese made, but I understand SE run their own factory in China, as opposed to using contract manufacturers like Feilo, so they're different to the Meeks, ADK's, Nady's etc. etc. I really wish I knew where Thomann stand...

I'm not into performing yet, but hopefully I should get into it soon. That great Cannonball sound came courtesy of a new set of Martins. Ahh yes.
Click to expand...

Ah good old Cork I did a stint in Russells music for work experience during transition year at school. To be fair the problem with Irish music suppliers is that all the UK wholesalers claim exclusive control over the Irish markets. It's only with newer makes and products that we have indiginous wholesalers. For anything like fender, gibson, mackie, tascam, fostex etc. etc. we have to buy through the UK and we get SHAFTED big time. Poor old Bill Russell doesn't make much on the gear he sells.

Those mics look a lot more solid than I expected I think I'll chance a pair for drum overheads when I sell off some more of my junk. You should look at www.musicstorekoeln.com they are 5-10 euros cheaper than thomann for a lot of things and the carriage is €13. Their site is very spiffy too! (often down for updating at night when I wake up though)
 
Well Russells is the best of whats on offer in Cork. I bought both my guitars in there plus countless other stuff. He's a sound man. I just cannot do business with Pro Musica. They just love to rip you off, giving you bad advice and no returns. You still living in Cork? What are you selling?

Musicstore is good too, but the t.bones just appealed to me more than their "Fame" range, and i knew thomann were a sound bunch, and they seemed more popular. I might try musicstore sometime though...

Can anyone else clarify who exactly manufactures these t.bone mics? I know Feilo make their studio LDC's. I saw an old catalogue and they were EXACTLY the same, not just similar. Can't find it now though. I've never seen mics that are exactly the same as mine. The SE ones come close, but not exactly...
 
DJ_Mixhousedude said:
Well Russells is the best of whats on offer in Cork. I bought both my guitars in there plus countless other stuff. He's a sound man. I just cannot do business with Pro Musica. They just love to rip you off, giving you bad advice and no returns. You still living in Cork? What are you selling?

Musicstore is good too, but the t.bones just appealed to me more than their "Fame" range, and i knew thomann were a sound bunch, and they seemed more popular. I might try musicstore sometime though...

Can anyone else clarify who exactly manufactures these t.bone mics? I know Feilo make their studio LDC's. I saw an old catalogue and they were EXACTLY the same, not just similar. Can't find it now though. I've never seen mics that are exactly the same as mine. The SE ones come close, but not exactly...
Click to expand...

In roscommon these days but back to Cork in September for more punishment at CIT. Russells are the great as they go and will order almost anything if you give them a deposit. Pro musica are an awful shower the only thing I've ever bought there was a set of classical strings at 5.30 when I knew I wouldn't make it to Russells - I paid 14 euro for the privilege. I get all my strings online now. Pro musica wanted 60 euro for a case for my classical guitar, I got the same case and a drednought case for 70 euro from sheena in Crowleys. I'm selling a sabine solo feedback eliminator, behringer desk, Swissonic USB Studio, audio technica AT853, a bunch of AT boundary mics, need money to get more stands for miing my drum kit and a couple of bits of drum hardware
 
Hey, just thinking would you be prepared to dismantle one and photograph and document the innards for the greater cause. I wouldn't be surprised if the PCB is printed with the parent mics model number. I'd be interested in seeing what components they're using. If you got a couple of close up pictures of the board I can do a schematic. Ther are a LOT of people searching google everyday for scraps of info about these mics.

Paddy
 
I never thought of doing that. What kind of precautions should I take. I presume its extremely easy to damage the mic. I wouldn't know what to touch, or how to avoid static damage. Any pointers?
 
If you don't have a wrist strap, regularly ground yourself on something like central heating pipes or the bare chassis of your computer (plugged in). JFETs are static sensitive (theres usually a few thrown aroung my bench and I've never had one fail not even a latent failure)

MOSFETS, CCD's and CMOS devices go pop if you look sideways at them. I used to work in a camera factory, you could stick the failed CCD's under a microscope and actually see the static damage on the surface of the die - that really converted a few sceptics I know.

When you're dismantling the mic you should handle the board by the edges like record or cd to avoid contact with the components and tracks and be gentle!

I just sold a bunch of stuff on ebay so I'm definitely in the market for a pair now.
 
yeah, seems a bit risky to me.. I really love my babies, and i'm really into recording with them. I'd hate to be reduced to mono. As you say, if you're in the market for a pair yourself, you could use your expertise to safely examine the mic. I have absolutely none...

Besides, I can't even find the right screwdriver...
 
DJ_Mixhousedude said:
yeah, seems a bit risky to me.. I really love my babies, and i'm really into recording with them. I'd hate to be reduced to mono. As you say, if you're in the market for a pair yourself, you could use your expertise to safely examine the mic. I have absolutely none...

Besides, I can't even find the right screwdriver...
Click to expand...

Probably not a good place to start then, you must be the only person in ireland who hasn't bought one of the nasty screwdriver set in Lidl or Aldi :)

I'm going to hang on until I've sold a couple of more bits I want to get an active stage monitor too and a couple of stands. Still tempted to buy a mic with an omni-cap though I have so many cardioids already. Has anyone done a real review of the Behringer B5 yet?
 
How's it goin? I've been meaning to check out those LDC's alright. That's one of the high-end one's on offer too. Mine are excellent for the price, so good luck with that one... I'm sure it's made by Feilo. Apparently the rise of communism spread the secrets of Neumann across to China, and so began 797 and Feilo etc.

That HAS to be good...
 
sE Electronics mics

Hi all,

just saw the thread about sE and Thomann and thought I could enlighten you all. Siwei Zou, the founder of sE, used to help certain brands with OEM product from SHanghai Feilo in China, up until about 18 months ago. Thomann was one of the companies involved, but SF also made mics for a large number of other manufacturers. Siwei was not directly involved in manufcaturing these products, but helped several manufacturers, including SF, to improve on their QC and product design by bringing to bear his huge experience. Siwei was conductor of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra for a number of years, and of the Shanghai Conservatory. He also worked closely with the Shanghai Opera, and was a major classical recording artist in China. He then became a professor and first bassoonist at the University of California, and is presently a professor at the Shanghai conservatory... you get the picture... a true 'golden ears' engineer!

To cut a long story short, Siwei cut all association with OEM product 18 months ago, when he, and ourselves (that's Sonic Distribution), went into partnership to form one of the ONLY wholly owned, non OEM mic companies in the world. In other words, not only do we not make products for anyone, but we don't subcontract our products either like all other big companies. We make even our own shock mounts and flight cases!

If anyone wants more info, pictures of our manufacturing plant and processes, all the way from raw materials (solid brass for most non electrical components!) to finished product (and I challenge ANY other manufacturer to show you that...!) I'll be happy to oblige.

Some products that look similar to sE are semi-copies made by engineers who have previously worked for Siwei. They are not of the same standard, not made bt sE, and in some cases (mentioning no names right now) we are currently pursuing legal suits against any company we consider to be infringing any of the more than 30 new patents we hold!

So, I hope that clears up some of the points I've seen raised, and am always happy to answer any quries anyone has on sE. You can contact me directly via our web site www.sonic-distribution.com if you'd like more detailed info.

Thanks

J
 
well as the saying goes the irish keep gate crashin, i hate that feckin song, i always got the impression that russles was much more expensive but then again i only buy stuff online and ocasionally in jeffers, i dont suppose any of you have tried the thomann ribbon mics have ye?

There was a thread a while back about where the thomann mics were made and it seems thomann, nady and some se mics are all made by some chinese crowd and just rebranded as t.bone and nady and whatnot.
 
Hi again,

another interesting thing you may want to know, is that most OEM lines (ie, lines made by a generic manufacturer and then branded up as someone elses!), come from several different unrelated factories, this includes T-bone. In fact in many cases even the 'brand' owner doesn't know from one month to another where their mics are made, because they use a middle man to broker the deals... the plot thickens! Very few ines out there are completely non-OEM, and sE is one of the few (now!).

The big 2 factories in China are Feilo (Shanghai) and 797 (Bejing), who make Studio Projects etc. In each territory there are about another 4 or 5 facilities which sub contract components, chassis, capsules, you name it. sE is the ONLY Chinese line that makes all their own stuff, and even so called western mic brands don't do that (many of them sub out a lot of their lower end models to China, and most of their acesories and mass produced parts).

So, it's true to say most 'brands' put there, including most the one's I've seen you mention so far, are re-branded OEM, with the exception of sE. Again, if you'd like factory photos etc let me know via our web site (contact details on the site www.sonic-distribution.com).

One of the reasons I'm so evangelical about this, is because I've seen the working conditions that most of these factories employ in person, and believe me, it's not a pretty sight (exactly what most people in the west would be horrified to find out meets their expectations of awful '3rd world' exploitation). The worst bit is that CHina is a VERY strong economy, and a lot of it is not at all 3rd world... it's actually the unscrupulous western 'brand' owners that use these people to make the cheapest product they can and then sell it at huge margins.

We don't... which is why I encourage people to check it out. Our employees are all paid 3-4 times the average skilled worker wage in Shanghai, given proper contracts, healthcare, canteens, reasonable working hours (8 hour shifts) and GOOD (even by western standards) working conditions etc etc... try getting that out of any of the brands you've mentioned. They either charge WAY too much for what they are producing, exploiting the peasant workers that are shipped into the cities to work 3 month, 7 day week stints to support their families in the poor countryside, OR, where you do pay a REALLY cheap price, well... you at least know what you are buying into I suppose... then at least it's a consumer choice! It's just I'd like to spread the word as much as possible so it's an informed choice...

J
 
Man, something really smells around here ... Whooooo boy, does it ever.

... like ... like ...

like a highly-processed food product. What's the name of that again?
 
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