Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RuudNL]

Somebody asked me if I could replace a worn cable of his Neumann U47 microphone.
As such, this is of course no problem if you find a good quality 4-wire screened cable.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the inside of the microphone and everything looked original.
To my surprise the capsule looked 'clean', cleaner than you would expect from a microphone this age.
The serial number of the microphone is 805, the serial number of the capsule head is 776.
The capsule is a K47 type. I always had the impression that the early U47 microphones used a M7 capsule.

Is it likely that a microphone with this (low) serial number had a K47 capsule out of the factory?
(I can take a picture if needed.)

[klaus]

No picture needed.
K47 were introduced about seven years after U47 #805 and KK47 head #776 were made.
Both originally came with an M7 capsule.

[RuudNL]

Thanks! This confirms my thoughts.
Also strange is that the power supply, with serial number #286 looks completely different from all U47 power supplies I have seen before.
Different colour of the enclosure, no carrying strap, different internal construction and even no type number.
But it HAS a Neumann logo.
(BTW: I don't like the way the XLR conversion was once done.)

[klaus]

What can I say?
This is an original 1951 NG supply, and certain features of later versions are not yet present.

However, these early NGs had superior filtering through a heavy-duty choke (you may have noticed the weight of the unit), and otherwise perform well with U47/48 mics from any era.

The only thing that visually bothers me is not the added XLR (not an easy thing to put a smaller chassis-mount connector in hole designed for the much larger 3-pin Tuchel audio connector), but the upside-down mounted mic connector: The connector "key" should be at 12:00.

I know, the XLR replacement is not esthetically pleasing. On these units, I prefer leaving the audio Tuchel in place and mounting an XLR  to the side, similar to how Neumann did it on NU67u power supplies (those meant for non-Tuchel countries, i.e. forthe U.S.).