I made this PCB for the Shoeps / Dorsey circuit....

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Silvas

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Joined
Aug 15, 2006
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727
Location
Chia, Colombia
MICPCB.jpg



I made this to replace the guts on a GT mic, which was beyond repair...i think it fits most MXL2001 style mics. It worked wonders. I made the layout so i can use different FET´s and BJT´s. I used J201 and BC550A and it worked wonders. Great headroom. If not using CBE BJT´s you can put a couple small jumpers on the underside of the PCB and mount a ECB transistor. Drop me a line if you want a PDF for home etching.


 
bernbrue said:
Hi,

<------------------------ it´s there. Thanks a lot. Which Schoeps microphone circuit is it actually?
regards
Bernd

The one Scott Dorsey took for his magazine article, don´t remember which models uses this kind of circuit, tho.

BTW, your email is hidden.
 
PM'd 

I've never home etched, this could be a cool place to start. 

Livingnote, I saw your post in the white market maybe you could do a small run if enough folks are interested.

 
One thing : Remember this mic circuit is FLAT. Many chinese mic capsules are K87 copies, which have HF enphasis. I´m sure there´s a way to tame the high end a bit in this circuit. Mic gurus, any advice ?

On the other hand, you may like that brightness. I do sometimes. The mic i put this on, had a "flat" capsule IIRC.



 
I would look at the yahoo microphone group for adjustments of the China Schoeps like circuit and/or real Schoeps schematic.
 
Yeah...anal.. but I would flip the top-left 10gig resistor 90deg.

Why? So that the "hot" pad would be located phisically as close to the fet as possible, in order to shorten the trace.

(You could flip the 820pF cap as well and move the fet closer to the board centre - this would cleanup the input area a bit and shorten the traces there as well)

 
Gus' advice is good. What has become known as the Dorsey circuit is a very stripped down version of the Schoeps circuit. Having written similar articles, I understand that doing away with everything that's not essential was necessary in order to turn this circuit into a good beginners project. But if you're beyond the absolute beginner stage, you should have another look at the details left out.

Some random remarks:

The original version has a 60V dc/dc-converter for proper polarization voltage. Without it, the Dorsey version leaves only about 35V for capsule bias; you lose about 5 dB S/N compared to 60V.

The original version also has a bias adjustment pot which allows for lower THD and higher headroom. You only need an additional 1 Meg (precision) trimmer for that.

About your layout: commercial mic pcb usually use teflon stand-offs in the hi-Z area. Soldering the capsule wires and Gig-resistios to the pcb may invite leakage currents.

Also, 1u caps between the FET and BJTs may be a little large. There's practically no LF reduction going on other than those caps, and you may run into problems with sub-frequencies if you choose them this large. 470n is the largest value I would recommend. The original Schoeps circuit uses only 100n.
 
tv said:
Yeah...anal.. but I would flip the top-left 10gig resistor 90deg.

Why? So that the "hot" pad would be located phisically as close to the fet as possible, in order to shorten the trace.

(You could flip the 820pF cap as well and move the fet closer to the board centre - this would cleanup the input area a bit and shorten the traces there as well)

Rossi said:
Gus' advice is good. What has become known as the Dorsey circuit is a very stripped down version of the Schoeps circuit. Having written similar articles, I understand that doing away with everything that's not essential was necessary in order to turn this circuit into a good beginners project. But if you're beyond the absolute beginner stage, you should have another look at the details left out.

Some random remarks:

The original version has a 60V dc/dc-converter for proper polarization voltage. Without it, the Dorsey version leaves only about 35V for capsule bias; you lose about 5 dB S/N compared to 60V.

The original version also has a bias adjustment pot which allows for lower THD and higher headroom. You only need an additional 1 Meg (precision) trimmer for that.

About your layout: commercial mic pcb usually use teflon stand-offs in the hi-Z area. Soldering the capsule wires and Gig-resistios to the pcb may invite leakage currents.

Also, 1u caps between the FET and BJTs may be a little large. There's practically no LF reduction going on other than those caps, and you may run into problems with sub-frequencies if you choose them this large. 470n is the largest value I would recommend. The original Schoeps circuit uses only 100n.

Great advice, thank you guys !

And yes, the DC-DC converter adds quite a degree of complexity to the circuit. For my particular case, it worked quite well (without it but maybe problematic with some capsules? don´t know).  DC-DC converters are still a bit of a mystery for me.  I just took the circuit as on the magazine article and did the PCB, then etched it, stuffed and tested. Nice...

I have no obsession with S/N on microphones as my usual mics aren´t particularly quiet, so i was happy with the result.

I used standoffs for the capsule connections. Not teflon, tho. Next time i´ll do that.


 
moamps said:
Hi,
pins for S and D on the FET are reversed, IMO.

Regards,
Milan

The idea is that you can mount whatever FET you want, regardless of the pinout,  by using the G pad on the right of the FET footprint.  That way, you can accomodate DSG FETs, besides DGS.
 
IMO, Rossi covered the bases very nicely.
There is another important part omission from the Dorsey circuit and - that omission has been repeated numerous times in the various Schoeps-like schematics found on the internet.
There should be a 47 uF/50 V electrolytic from the joined collectors of the PNP emitter follower transistors to ground.
This lowers the mic. output impedance, increases drive and lowers noise sensitivity.
It also helps to reduce (mainly) 2nd harmonic distortion.
Lots of folks get by without that cap but - I believe it is important to have it there for the reasons given.
(You can see that cap in the original Schoeps CMC mic. schematic)

Cheers.

ZAP
 

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