new akg microphones

Just got a BSW catalog in the mail. New 414 s

capsule mount looks like the solid tubes one IIRC

EDIT The microphone might not be an elecret. I don't see elecret in the writeups at AKG site. On page 76 in the BSW summer 2004 cat is the only place I found Electret

EDIT removed a line read Tim C's post below. I think the BSW cat might have a mistake

Gus,

Can you scan this and circulate? I think we need to know the truth!

Stewart

Just go to the AKG web site. They have a video about the microphone. It looks like it has surface mount electros YUK!!!!!!. did they just repackage the C4000B with more patterns and LEDs??? IMO leds take power away from the electronics when using phantom power.


http://akgweb.atiba.com/index.asp

click on the new 414 link


The horror the horror! http://www.akg.com/mediendatenbank/psfile/mediafile/58/c414xls_xl4055755f22908.pdf

I quickly read the pdf but couldn't see where it said it was an electret. "Pressure gradient microphone' is in the specs.

It looks pretty ugly, and I don't see the point of a remote control pattern switch. Are they trying to get ahead in the market by fixing things that don't need fixing?

The new neumann uses the voltage of the phantom to switch patterns remotely. I think you switch it to remote and a 3 volt delta in the phantom voltage switches patterns. I dislike SMD electros They fail like crazy and even when new measure like shit compared to good electros with leads. I know because I measure them with a sencore LC102 and have to change them in repairs I use leaded caps for the repair.

It looks like there are ceramic surface mount caps on the board and the two electros by the xlr look like the ones that are the output caps.

The horror the horror (said in Marlon Brando voice)

FWIW I will get around to changing the caps in my tlm103 I think thats is what hurts the tlm103 sound. I have changed the output electros and ceramic smds in my nt1000 it is more smooth now. Creamics sound like mid grit to me and high esr electros seem to cause a "Blur"

How much power is being used by the micro and leds in the new AKG phantom is limited to < 48V/3.4K .014 amps. 3.4k would be the load if both resistors are grounded. EDIT I just saw the current is 4.5ma that will give about a 15V drop so the microphone sees about 33v it looks like 3 leds are on all the time how low in ma can a LED work at now?

Steward can you post the nt1000 mod pics to show what changing smd parts involves.

I really do not think those mics are electret...

Steward can you post the nt1000 mod pics to show what changing smd parts involves.

Click to expand...

Gus, I'll post them tomorrow (monday) - they're on my hard drive at work. I had forgotten to upload them to my server.
Stewart

I talked to Norbert Sobol, the guy who designed the mic, and he swore to me that this mic uses the same capsule as the 414ULS just with a different mount.

Tim

Thank you for the info I edited my first post. I do not want to post bad information.

Gus

can you post the nt1000 mod pics to show what changing smd parts involves.

Click to expand...

pix in a new thread...

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=1155[/quote]

Slightly off-topic, but:

Gus, do you know the values of the the capacitors in TLM103?

Could you please post them?

Also, how does it sound now?

Thanks!

ddt

High efficiency LED's will light up pretty bright even in the 1-2 mA region, and they only need 2 volts to light up - so you can use leftover power from a bias circuit (or even use the LED as part of the bias circuit), or you can use the same DC-DC converter used to generate the +60 for the capsule (from the 33V available) and at the same time generate maybe 3.3V or 5V for some digital switching logic stuff if they wanted to - at something like 30mA. Remember that switchers are much quieter than before, have been used for a long time on phantom powered mics (U87, for example), and are constant power deveices - so 33V * .0045A -> 150mW input. Output will be about 85% of that (or maybe more), for a 5V output, you'll get about 29mA.

I don't know the values in the tlm103. I remove the parts and then measure them with SMDs.

If it was electret there wouldn't be a need for the DC to DC converter. The capsule doesn't look like an electret either. I do like the idea of a clip LED on the mic. Other than that, I'll hold onto my 414 BULS's for a while.

[quote author="Gus"]...It looks like it has surface mount electros YUK!!!!!!...The horror...[/quote]I thought the same thing when I saw an open view of the circuit board on the front of a magazine at Guitar Center about a month ago. I meant to post about it then, but forgot. Funny, the review praised it to high heaven. :shock: I knew it couldn't sound that good with those caps, but you know how reviews are. :roll:

BTW Gus, Panasonic has some sufrace mount, low ESR (0.1 to 0.4 ohm depending on the size an value) tantalums, series TE-L. Wonder if they are any good for this stuff?

I don't know if anyone does it, but I think you could design out the sound of those caps using some clever circuitry, even though they are there. I'll have to think about it some, but I think it should be possible.

sick.

in that Lynn Fuston interview with David Bock he mentions that restyling of the body is actually a structural consideration. i would have been more sicked out if didn't know that.