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[mutterd]

Hey everyone - could you please have a look at this and tell me what you think it it?

I just bought the mic, there was some damage in shipping and I'm trying to decide weather to ask for a partial refund or to send it back.

A friend said it was the gold scraped off from a bad cleaning, another friend said its the gold starting to flake off the mylar.

I tried it out on an acoustic cello and it sounded good, had lots of low end but wasn't as bright as I expected. I have used CK12 EB's and it seemed a little duller than id expected...

Next I tried it as a floor tom side drum mic in Glynn John and again - loads of lowed but maybe not the air...

anybody seen anything like this before?

I will post photos and can provide audio files if anyone is interested.

thanks so much guys,
Timothy

[mutterd]

Here are some shots of the other side of the capsule - has a little dab of something with some fibers stuck in it....

[klaus]

Aside of a small area of reduced sputtering density, the front diaphragm surface looks fine. Such small amount of sputtering loss will not affect the performance of this capsule. I cannot comment on the "dabs" (most likely indentations) on the rear diaphragm, as your pictures are not close enough and too low in resolution.

The frequency imbalance of the mic in cardioid is unrelated to the sputtering loss, and may have the following causes:

1. Diaphragm tension loss

2. Wrong spacer thickness between diaphragm and backplate

3. A CK12 on one end of a very wide spectrum of "acceptable"  frequency performance

I would try to reverse this capsule, to determine what options you may have:

First, remove the red wire from the rear diaphragm, then listen to the mic in cardioid. Then remove the front wire (green) and mount it to where the rear diaphragm wire (red )was mounted. This will give you an objective comparison between to nominally identical cardioids. You will find that they most likely will sound different. If you like the sound of the rear side, have an expert mic tech reverse mount the capsule, and use that side from then on as front (cardioid) side. If the rear also sounds muffled in your listening test, return the mic to the seller.

Best of luck!
KH

[mutterd]

Wow - thanks so much Klaus - I will try swapping capsule sides out tomorrow - thanks so much for that.

sorry for the photos - I will post some better ones.

the "dab" almost looks like a drop of water or spit or something - much bigger than the spray residue on Neumann's...

here is a higher res version of the side with the sputtering density issue.

[mutterd]

and the other side with the "dab"

[mutterd]

Klaus-

In testing the sides of the capsule - is it safe to loosen the screw and remove the lug?

Or is it better to resolder...

Thanks so much!
Timothy

[klaus]

Removing the screw is preferable to unsodering the wire from the eyelet: soldering would take place too close to the diaphragm, and hot rosin may splash onto the diaphragm plastic and burn holes in it.

[Kai]

...soldering would take place too close to the diaphragm, and hot rosin may splash onto the diaphragm plastic and burn holes in it.

The little drop you can see in the picture is very likely one of those.
I always build a little pocket from paper to protect the diaphragm when soldering.

Even then I absolutely avoid soldering the center tap on Neumann (luckily not in this case) style capsules.
The tap would need to be unscrewed and refited which is a delicate job.
Soldering this one in place would very likely overheat the diaphragm.

[mutterd]

yeah - the thought of a soldering iron in that proximity to the capsule was slightly panic attack inducing...

thanks guys - will let you know how it goes.

T.

[mutterd]

Ok - so heres a quick update.

I took the mic into the workshop last night with the intention of trying out the individual Cardioid sides as Klaus recommended.

I set it up to do some listening tests - was the first time i ever really set it up for any sort of vocal's aside from just talking thru it when i first got it. I did some tests above a drum kit comparing it to my '71 u87 and I used it for a session on a cello - both sounded ok, with good bass and low mids but slightly dull...

I was pretty immediately taken aback at the mics sensitivity to plosives - it pretty much thumps out in all patterns as close 30cm/1' away.

Is this normal?

I took the head basket off and noticed a slight bit of wrinkling around the edge by that weird "dab" but i wasn't able to really get a photo of it...

after that i inspected the leads to the solder tabs that attach to the capsule and there is no way i could get the green tab around to the other side - its a short lead to one pole of the mic pattern switch and I'm not sure if its been modified, but its no more than 30mm/1.25"...

so tell me guys - am I beating a dead horse here?

thanks so much for the help/advice.
Timothy

[klaus]

The low end collapse could indicate a fatal capsule condition.
Rather than have you pull on a wire to make it reach to the other side, make the blow test which will indicate whether your capsule suffers from low diaphragm tension:

Set the mic to figure eight. Blow a strong, steady stream of air from your mouth onto the front diaphragm, after setting up a bright light that reflects in the diaphragm. Now observe how soon the diaphragm returns to its resting position after being pressed against the backplate by the air pressure.

While you blow, you will observe the rough outline of the backplate through the thin skin of the diaphragm. That outline should disappear within less than a second after you stop blowing. If not, the capsule's diaphragm is shot and cannot be restored to factory spec performance.  Confirmation of very low diaphragm tension is when the stuck diaphragm section immediate spreads to the whole surface area within milliseconds.

Repeat the test on the rear side. If you have low tension on just one side, return the mic to the seller.

[mutterd]

Update #2.

Just set the mic up on a stand with a flash light in hand, mic switched to figure 8, and against better judgment, blew on the capsule.

I was fully expecting to see some action, but I saw nothing - moved the light all-around and kept going at it - all i saw was 1 tiny dimple on each side, like i was pushing the capsule down with a pin, and that was only when i was really blowing...

turned it around and same thing - no bottoming out... just 1 tiny dimple. no wrinkles on the edges, no outline of the backplane...

if i monitor it of course its goes nuts - but without sound i observed very little...

I confirmed again the popping "p's" and indeed, its thumps right out, but not visually...

good news? or bad news?

thanks so much Klaus.
T.

[klaus]

If your observation was correct, the diaphragms are fine. When applying air to the diaphragms, they should indeed bottom out for a split second, but recover fully immediately.

[mutterd]

So possibly an electronic overload? Is that something you see?

I have yet to open the shielded box...

Thanks so much.
T.

[klaus]

I am still unsure what exactly may be wrong with this mic.

You wrote earlier "it pretty much thumps out in all patterns as close as 30cm/1' away".
What does "thumping out" exactly mean? Did you ever compare it to any other C414 with CK12 capsules? Are you maybe not familiar with the rich low end these capsules produce, compared to similar Neumann products?

Bottom line: If you found something wrong with the mic, it may need further clarification as to the exact phenomenon you experience.