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[Bortraws]

With my first post on his forum I would first like to wish everyone a happy new year!

Love this forum and am in awe of the knowledge of many people here. Especially Klaus regarding vintage mics.

I have read a decent number of threads by now and believe I can deceipher the date of the capsule of my U87. If i am correct it is an original K87 capsule probably from 1979 because of the 9 on the capsule ring depicting the year and it has the clear lacquer on ivory colored rings. If it were from 1989 it would have all white rings. Am I close? The capacitors all seem original to me and look to be placed after '77 if I'm interpreting the numbers on C14 correctly (not that C14). I do have my suspicion of C9 at the top. Is that replaced?

But nothing better of course than confirmation of the one and only Klaus I still believe in 

Can you tell from the photos the approximate age of my mic and whether the capsule and components are original. Do you know what the K2 and X4 (or X2 and X4) on the base of the capsule mean?

Thanks in advance!!

EDIT: FYI the serial number of the mic is around 30400

[klaus]

Your mic was delivered around  November or December 1977. The date code on the two electrolytics indicate that the mic was indeed also made around that time.

Your capsule is a genuine Neumann K87 replacement capsule, made in 1991 (the red "1" on the back is the date code).

[Bortraws]

Ah, so I misinterpreted the numbers on the capsule. The red one marks the date. I thought that was a red V from Vorne which I thought was strange of course because it is on the rear side. I was a tiny bit afraid the capsule had been tampered with. Even though the mic sounds great, which is the most important thing of course

Love to hear for certain that the capsule is from ‘91. Confirmed. 1991

So the capacitors are indeed from ‘77.

Great info.

Thanks Klaus