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SlamminSammy

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
5
Location
USA
Nervous newbie here, wondering if some of you experts can point me in the right direction. I've been through the mic meta and have searched the posts over the past couple weeks but have not run into the info I'm looking for. But my head is spinning with all that I have learned, so maybe I missed something pertinent.

Anyway, here's the situation. I have a chance to purchase some SP B1's and C1's at a pretty good price and was hoping there were some easy mods that could help me get the most out of them. Or maybe you have other mic recommendations in the same price range that would be better. There were a couple mods mentioned at this forum for the MXL mics, I think, but thought that the SP mics might be a step up (although I'm not too familiar with the MXL's- Marshall's I think?). I thought I had read somewhere here that the condensors from 791 might be better than whatever is in the MXL's. I've also heard elsewhere about the SP mics being pretty good, but maybe too bright. So I'm hoping for an inexpensive cap replacement or something similar to enhance the quality.

If it matters, I'm mainly going to be recording vocals of myself (tenor) and acoustic guitar. I was hoping to try to do the guitar in stereo, hence the 2 mics. I'm brand new to DIY, but have the assistance of an actual EE who loves this kind of stuff, so I'm hoping to start the learning curve on a mic or 2 with his help. Let me know what you think and thanks in advance for all assistance.

Slammin Sammy
 
hey, if you can get those B1's for less than 99$ and the C1 for less than 175, buy them! those are the cheapest I've seen them new. As for mods, I own a pair of the B1s and a C1. I've played with modding them but they are really pretty good as they are. I wouldn't mod them other than maybe changing the capsule coupling cap to 1000pf polystyrene if you like really open sound, or to a 1000pf polypropylene if you want a more clean sound. if you *have* to mod something then get one of the mxl2003 to mod. they are more expensive than B1's but people tend to really like the capsules with tube mods.

:guinness:
 
Modding the SP mics is a bit weird, since they tend to use reasonably good components from the start. A lot of the MXL mics and various and sundry others seem to be a Schoeps transformerless circuit that is itself a pretty good circuit, but cheap capacitors plague them, and maybe better transistors could be used, so these mods typically are a good improvement. The SP's are generally ok, so it's hard to recomend them as mics to buy to fix. The C1 likely has good room to put a tube circuit into, though. (B1 might be small for this.)

Bear
 
I have a C1. It sounds good stock the caps are good the electronics are good and the 797 capsule is nice.

Remember its a C1 with the cardiod 797 capsule that capsule/grill has it own sound I think that is what makes it interesting. Its it own thing IMO.
 
I have both the B1 and C1, and they both sound quite good stock. In fact I grab my C1 over much more expensive mics on a regular basis for vocals. It really is a nice mic.
 
Same impression here. I was quite amazed to see that my B1 had those nice red Wima caps (MKS2, I think). Those littel caps must have travelled from Germany to China, then to the US, where I bought the mic and back to Germany where I live.

Yeah, the only part I think about replacing is the 1000pf one that connects the capsule. I think that one was polyester, too. I'm not sure how much polysterene or polypropylene would improve the sound. I quite like it as it is. It's not the most impressive vocal microphone, though. But very versatile and clean.
 
My MXL2003 has the red WIMAs, including the capsule to gate. I haven't decided whether I'm gonna swap those out or not.
 
The only thing about the C1 is that the casing has a weird ring at some frequencies. Very resonant case. I was gonna line the inside with something but did not get to it yet. :roll:
 
[quote author="tmbg"]My MXL2003 has the red WIMAs, including the capsule to gate. I haven't decided whether I'm gonna swap those out or not.[/quote]I would swap the capsule to gate.

BTW, just because they are WIMA caps doesn't mean they are the best for the job. Also, WIMA makes several different grades of caps - cheap to expensive.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. You've all pretty much confirmed what I've been hearing about the quality of the sp's for the money. I guess I was hoping there might be some way to bring them to the next level of quality without actually having to spend the money on a mic that's already at the next level:). It sounds like these mics are already pretty solid, though, and exactly what I need.

I must say, it seems this group is really a thriving forum filled with plenty of experts willing to help out. Hope to be working on some of the projects that are happening in here if I can ever find more time and maybe some extra money (and plenty of help from Mr. EE). Thanks again for all your comments.

Later
 
Yes I've heard the C1 is excellent as is from guys who can afford any mic they want.
 
I like C4's as well. Coupled with a good mic pre, they are very nice sounding. At my studio I have 451's, SM81's, and 414's (as well as a lot of other condensors) and I always use the C4's on drum overheads. Though, if I had a pair of AT 4041's, I'd probably use those all the time on drums. I keep meaning to buy a pair, but keep finding DIY stuff I want to do more. The C4's also sound really nice on vibraphone, marimba, and other acoustic instruments. The omni capsules are pretty cool too.

I always pull out my studio projects mics, and feel iffy about them, because they are so inexpensive. Yet it the end, there's certain applications that they always sound the best to me on (given my mic selection).

Anyway, I think you'll like them, especially for the money.
 
[quote author="Flatpicker"][quote author="tmbg"]My MXL2003 has the red WIMAs, including the capsule to gate. I haven't decided whether I'm gonna swap those out or not.[/quote]I would swap the capsule to gate.

BTW, just because they are WIMA caps doesn't mean they are the best for the job. Also, WIMA makes several different grades of caps - cheap to expensive.[/quote]

I suspect that red WIMA caps means the mic is built by 797Audio. They seem to like those. Yes, WIMA makes zillions of different caps. The red ones are MKS i.e. polyester. I quite like them, but there may be better caps for the capsule to gate connection. Still, I think the polyesters are much better than the usual multilayer ceramics. Probably not quite as good as polyprop or styroflex, but I'm hesitant to swap them out because the mic sounds good stock. Or has anybody done the mod on a B1 or C1 and can confirm that it's worth doing?
 
I did some surgery on the 2003.

I swapped the capsule to gate WIMA with a polystyrene, and I swapped out the two 0.22 ceramics, and the big 'lytic.

The cap I used for the big 'lytic was a 50V 1uf mylar, and only after I did the swap did I realize that the big lytic actually says 450V, not 50V :shock:

I measured across that cap, and it only seems to see 25v at any given moment, so let's hope :p

If it blows up, I'll put the lytic back in.

Oh, I swapped out the WIMA rf shunt caps too, for the hell of it.

Anyway, the mic opened up a tad, but no huge dramatic change.
 
Could anyone give me in layman's terms an idea of what is meant by "open sound"? I assume it doesn't mean brigther, but not sure what it does mean then. "Clean sound" sounds like the mic doesn't color the sound as much, right? Told you, this is all new to me. Thanks in advance...

Svart said: "I wouldn't mod them other than maybe changing the capsule coupling cap to 1000pf polystyrene if you like really open sound, or to a 1000pf polypropylene if you want a more clean sound. if you *have* to mod something then get one of the mxl2003 to mod. they are more expensive than B1's but people tend to really like the capsules with tube mods."

:guinness:[/quote]
 
clean sound: not muddy boomy or with too much brightness, usually overly bright with a wierd raspy sound in the china mics.

open: usually sounds more "tinny" but you can hear more detail and usually more of the room too.

hope that helps! :thumb:
 
explaining sound is hard IMO. The best way seems to be to try a bunch of stuff and let you ear/brain learn. If you change one thing at a time that helps alot with what did what.

The problem is there is no easy effective way to realy test.
 
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