Brent Casey
Just add water and stir!
Oh indeed?
James, it is sE and you that makes "the cheapest product they can and sell it at huge margins". I have seen the new SE mics inside and out and as a product designer and engineer with extensive knowledge of condenser microphones, I can give you the qualified assurance that the SE products are of sub-par construction. Anybody can see that you are charging a lot of money for them.
Additionally, I have traveled to China and the 797 factory and their engineers have been to our facility as well. I did not know what to expect upon going there, but what I found was a nice clean facility staffed with competent people using some very nice equipment to machine, construct and assemble microphones. You are being very disingenuous by implying otherwise. You continue in this fashion by stating that other manufacturers are unscrupulous and I think that this is a case of projection on your part. The fact that you are associated with somebody like Siwei Zou bears this out in my opinion.
Since you are a marketing guy and have shared some of your marketing expertise here, allow me as a design engineer to return the favor and share with you some of my findings upon examining an sE3300.
First of all, from ten feet away, it looks like a decent mic. I like the headgrille. Unfortunately, the plating on the three outside body parts were done in separate batches, leaving them four different shades and textures. The inside of the bodies had not been deburred and I'm sure that some of your well-paid workers have received many metal slivers due to this.
Inside, was the typical metal frame used by all Shanghai LD microphones. There were loose screws and a transformer shielding can that was empty. Apparently it is there to make it appear that there is a transformer? There are two screws to hold the grill on which is poor design. Inside the grill is the white P20 capsule mount used in all Shanghai mics now. I specified this material when I was with Marshall MXL and now you use it! You're welcome. The old black material was a real nightmare, but that was before your time. Additionally, the phillips head screws around the diaphragm ring were my specification from around the same time period. The capsule itself was typical of all Shanghai based large capsule mics and the assembly on it was just terrible. the mylar was not trimmed around the edges, it was flapping loosely. The screws around the diaphragm ring were improperly tensioned. Whoever tightened the center terminal screw had not taken care to prevent the mylar diaphragm from becoming twisted and distorted around the center washer. As always, there is no glue on these capsules to hold the diaphragm tension. Over time, it will slip - unevenly. Is this what you mean by improved QC? The real capper was that the capsule was not facing forward, but rather at about a 35° angle. I kid you not.
Let's move on,
The switches were fake C&K. Why knock off C&K? They are plentiful and good. We use the C&K, by the way, so your inference that other companies are making the cheapest possible mics for the highest margin starts to fall short here.
And here as well as we continue on to: The Circuit Board.
Those brownish, crumbling 1KM ohm resistors are the worst I have seen. Aside from the capsule, these are the hallmarks of a garden variety Shanghai large diaphragm consdenser mic. They are noisy and just awful. We do not use them in our mics, fortunately. We pay a little more, for better quality resistors as this is a very important part of the circuit. You sir, do not seem to think so, or none of you know any better. (Until now)
There is a plethora of ceramic capacitors in this mic. They're everywhere! And they're cheap and crappy sounding. They have their uses, but where the sE is using them, I would specify something different.
The layout I think has a lot to do with why the mic was so noisy - that and those hiz resistors. They were located, by the way on the bias generator board and connected via a wire to the JFET on another board. Oh and the bias generator? A Hartley based oscillator using a tapped inductor? That must've taken a lot of effort to copy from the Neumann circuit.
The rest of the circuit is very basic. Nothing terribly wrong with it, other than the bad biasing on the PNP emitter follower and the fact that it had a low output and a high noise floor. If you're going to make a mic with an unbalanced output, at least use a circuit topology that can take advantage this in terms of signal to noise, low distortion, etc. The only real thing to set this mic apart from any other off the shelf Shanghai OEM is the body style and the plated-through hole blue phenolic PCB, which I might add, looks quite impressive.
I see the buzz that your marketing has generated and I hear that the sE's are being touted as high end mics. In fact, I think that the SE 3300 goes for around $600.00 U.S. This is crazy!
Let me tell you something, "J". When you say that other manufacturers are making the cheapest possible products and selling them at huge margins, you are describing yourself to a "T". I don't care if you say you have your own facility and make everything yourself. It's still garden variety Shanghai copies of copies sold for way more money than any other Western contract manufacturer or off-the shelf rebranding outfit. You are in a category all by yourself when it comes to selling a cheap product for a ridiculous margin. And then you come on here and try to badmouth other manufacturers. Try and find a company manufacturing out of China that charges as much as you do. If anybody doubts what I say about any of this, open one of those mics up and check for yourself. Compare it to any other Shanghai mic. Run you finger along the edge of a body tube if you dare. Check out the capsule. I am positive that I didn't just see one that was made on an off day. Look at the plating. Check out the components if you happen to be somewhat savvy in electronics. See what I mean. Now crack open a Studio Projects mic - ANY Studio Projects mic and look for some of this stuff I have listed. Listen to the noise floor. Compare the output levels. Feel the switches and how they actuate. There is a difference.
For an in house mic factory, why are your products like all the other Shanghai brethren but for the blue circuit boards and body style? Why is the SD shockmount for the SE2A identical to the one designed and conceived of at Marshall Electronics in late 1999? Notice that the capsule of an MXL 603 fits on this mic. You may make this stuff in house, but it's nothing new. You just charge more for it. Your mics are of shoddy construction. You dare to charge more for them and then rip others who charge less and go on to say that they are exploiting peasants in China. You are a liar and a fraud. Your partner Siwei Zou is well known in the business too. Perhaps you should talk to some of the other charlatans that have partnered up with him in the past.
Lastly, since you're offering to show pictures of your facility, why don't you throw up some pictures of the machine shop where the backplates are made?
Good Day,
Brent Casey
PMI Audio Group
James, it is sE and you that makes "the cheapest product they can and sell it at huge margins". I have seen the new SE mics inside and out and as a product designer and engineer with extensive knowledge of condenser microphones, I can give you the qualified assurance that the SE products are of sub-par construction. Anybody can see that you are charging a lot of money for them.
Additionally, I have traveled to China and the 797 factory and their engineers have been to our facility as well. I did not know what to expect upon going there, but what I found was a nice clean facility staffed with competent people using some very nice equipment to machine, construct and assemble microphones. You are being very disingenuous by implying otherwise. You continue in this fashion by stating that other manufacturers are unscrupulous and I think that this is a case of projection on your part. The fact that you are associated with somebody like Siwei Zou bears this out in my opinion.
Since you are a marketing guy and have shared some of your marketing expertise here, allow me as a design engineer to return the favor and share with you some of my findings upon examining an sE3300.
First of all, from ten feet away, it looks like a decent mic. I like the headgrille. Unfortunately, the plating on the three outside body parts were done in separate batches, leaving them four different shades and textures. The inside of the bodies had not been deburred and I'm sure that some of your well-paid workers have received many metal slivers due to this.
Inside, was the typical metal frame used by all Shanghai LD microphones. There were loose screws and a transformer shielding can that was empty. Apparently it is there to make it appear that there is a transformer? There are two screws to hold the grill on which is poor design. Inside the grill is the white P20 capsule mount used in all Shanghai mics now. I specified this material when I was with Marshall MXL and now you use it! You're welcome. The old black material was a real nightmare, but that was before your time. Additionally, the phillips head screws around the diaphragm ring were my specification from around the same time period. The capsule itself was typical of all Shanghai based large capsule mics and the assembly on it was just terrible. the mylar was not trimmed around the edges, it was flapping loosely. The screws around the diaphragm ring were improperly tensioned. Whoever tightened the center terminal screw had not taken care to prevent the mylar diaphragm from becoming twisted and distorted around the center washer. As always, there is no glue on these capsules to hold the diaphragm tension. Over time, it will slip - unevenly. Is this what you mean by improved QC? The real capper was that the capsule was not facing forward, but rather at about a 35° angle. I kid you not.
Let's move on,
The switches were fake C&K. Why knock off C&K? They are plentiful and good. We use the C&K, by the way, so your inference that other companies are making the cheapest possible mics for the highest margin starts to fall short here.
And here as well as we continue on to: The Circuit Board.
Those brownish, crumbling 1KM ohm resistors are the worst I have seen. Aside from the capsule, these are the hallmarks of a garden variety Shanghai large diaphragm consdenser mic. They are noisy and just awful. We do not use them in our mics, fortunately. We pay a little more, for better quality resistors as this is a very important part of the circuit. You sir, do not seem to think so, or none of you know any better. (Until now)
There is a plethora of ceramic capacitors in this mic. They're everywhere! And they're cheap and crappy sounding. They have their uses, but where the sE is using them, I would specify something different.
The layout I think has a lot to do with why the mic was so noisy - that and those hiz resistors. They were located, by the way on the bias generator board and connected via a wire to the JFET on another board. Oh and the bias generator? A Hartley based oscillator using a tapped inductor? That must've taken a lot of effort to copy from the Neumann circuit.
The rest of the circuit is very basic. Nothing terribly wrong with it, other than the bad biasing on the PNP emitter follower and the fact that it had a low output and a high noise floor. If you're going to make a mic with an unbalanced output, at least use a circuit topology that can take advantage this in terms of signal to noise, low distortion, etc. The only real thing to set this mic apart from any other off the shelf Shanghai OEM is the body style and the plated-through hole blue phenolic PCB, which I might add, looks quite impressive.
I see the buzz that your marketing has generated and I hear that the sE's are being touted as high end mics. In fact, I think that the SE 3300 goes for around $600.00 U.S. This is crazy!
Let me tell you something, "J". When you say that other manufacturers are making the cheapest possible products and selling them at huge margins, you are describing yourself to a "T". I don't care if you say you have your own facility and make everything yourself. It's still garden variety Shanghai copies of copies sold for way more money than any other Western contract manufacturer or off-the shelf rebranding outfit. You are in a category all by yourself when it comes to selling a cheap product for a ridiculous margin. And then you come on here and try to badmouth other manufacturers. Try and find a company manufacturing out of China that charges as much as you do. If anybody doubts what I say about any of this, open one of those mics up and check for yourself. Compare it to any other Shanghai mic. Run you finger along the edge of a body tube if you dare. Check out the capsule. I am positive that I didn't just see one that was made on an off day. Look at the plating. Check out the components if you happen to be somewhat savvy in electronics. See what I mean. Now crack open a Studio Projects mic - ANY Studio Projects mic and look for some of this stuff I have listed. Listen to the noise floor. Compare the output levels. Feel the switches and how they actuate. There is a difference.
For an in house mic factory, why are your products like all the other Shanghai brethren but for the blue circuit boards and body style? Why is the SD shockmount for the SE2A identical to the one designed and conceived of at Marshall Electronics in late 1999? Notice that the capsule of an MXL 603 fits on this mic. You may make this stuff in house, but it's nothing new. You just charge more for it. Your mics are of shoddy construction. You dare to charge more for them and then rip others who charge less and go on to say that they are exploiting peasants in China. You are a liar and a fraud. Your partner Siwei Zou is well known in the business too. Perhaps you should talk to some of the other charlatans that have partnered up with him in the past.
Lastly, since you're offering to show pictures of your facility, why don't you throw up some pictures of the machine shop where the backplates are made?
Good Day,
Brent Casey
PMI Audio Group
