Tim Campbell
Well-known member
If anyone here has any technical info on Neumann aluminum M50 capsules please contact me.
Later M50s were Mylar - did he do metal as well?Ben did a run of M50 capsules. I assume he has some info. Pretty sure he did a couple versions too.
I assume you've seen the Saturn Sound pages?If anyone here has any technical info on Neumann aluminum M50 capsules please contact me.
BeezKneez did a copy of that capsule; here's their post about it:Thanks guys. I have a very old M50 that needs a new diaphram. I just need to check the thickness of the aluminum and tuning freq, I have the old diaphram which is extremely thick so I just want to check that this is really correct and the tuning freq. so I can save some time
Thanks guys. I have a very old M50 that needs a new diaphram. I just need to check the thickness of the aluminum and tuning freq, I have the old diaphram which is extremely thick so I just want to check that this is really correct and the tuning freq. so I can save some time
Not surprising - as you can see on the Saturn Sound diagrams, the construction of the Mylar capsule was completely different from the one with the alum diaphragm, with also very different spacing.Thanks K Brown. My capsule is from 1952 and the spacing between membrane and backplate is machined into the capsule. I have replaced it with mylar but it does not sound as good.
Don’t forget the headbasket. And in the M50 the capsule is flush mounted in the sphere. The kk53 in the km53 has a gap between capsule and housing as far as I know.I know Tim already knows this, but for others following the thread - though they share the same aluminum capsule, many sellers of KM 53 will say pop an APE on one and get virtually the same sound as an M50; I'm convinced that the biggest contributor to the sound on the M50 (and M49) - other than the capsules, obviously, is the particular, huge transformer used, which the KM 53 does not have; the AC701 contributing far less to the mics' sound. Decca were quite content to convert their M50s to FET, but would never have replaced that juicy transformer.
@k brown, which transformer is in the M50?I know Tim already knows this, but for others following the thread - though they share the same aluminum capsule, many sellers of KM 53 will say pop an APE on one and get virtually the same sound as an M50; I'm convinced that the biggest contributor to the sound on the M50 (and M49) - other than the capsules, obviously, is the particular, huge transformer used, which the KM 53 does not have; the AC701 contributing far less to the mics' sound. Decca were quite content to convert their M50s to FET, but would never have replaced that juicy transformer.
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