R/E/P > Klaus Heyne's Mic Lab

Can you hear the transformer in some of these mics?

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Mike Jasper:
The short answer is... I doubt it.

I've posted a link to seven mics, all recording the same acoustic guitar into the same mic pre/converter chain.

Which mics have a transformer? I guarantee you at least one of them does.

If you want to listen, you'll have to PM me for the link. I also won't post the answers here, but I will provide you with all the answers once you've guessed (and believe me, it's a guess).

Also, your answers won't be shared with anyone else. Here's the way I see it -- if I can't tell if a mic has a transformer just by listening to it, then why should you be able to?

Jasper

Barry Hufker:
You are supposed to PM for the link.  Please read carefully all rules before playing this game.

Oliver Archut:
Hello Mike,

maybe I am missing the point, but every test is only as good as it is executed. Hearing x-former in links on the Internet? I doubt it too.

But here are some test that I did over the years,

Transplanting all Fender Bassmann x-former to a Marshall JMP and vice versa, the sound follows the transformers meaning the Bassman sounded like a Marshall.

Transplanting a BV11 (M49 x-former) with the needed mods into an U47 and the U47 starts sounding pretty similar to a M49. Headroom did not change however.

In a test reducing the winding as well the core material in quality, at one point the x-former started to sound just by being in the chain.

Point of x-former is not to hear it, if it is good designed you are not suppose to here it. But in some setups you can trigger it to hear it.

Best regards,

Schallfeldnebel:
You can off course also do a test with an instrument having a little bit larger bandwidth than a guitar. With e.g. pipe organ I can assure you a trained listener can tell when there is a transformer in the chain.

In your case, it is not a real ABX test. If you would ask me to hear the difference between a standard Neumann KM84, and one modified without transformer, you can wake me up in the middle of the night, and I tell you in an A-B comparison which is which.

This pre you use, does that already have a transformer inside? If so, it makes it more difficult to hear the character of a transformer inside a microphone.

There are bad transformers, there are good transformers. Bad ones will be more easy to detect. Take a DPA 4006 and a DPA 4006TL. Many claimed to hear a huge difference.

SFN

MDM,:
the transformer defines the amplifier... usually.

if there is no transformer, that means that there has to be a line driver built into the mic with at least a few transistors, and in the worst cases an op-amp or other IC circuit.

if you can't hear the difference between a transformer output and a solid state transformerless something is going wrong, IMO.

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