Need help with Mic repair

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Philgood

Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2005
Messages
6
I'm glad to have been sent to this place from a guy from the MOJO PIE forum. He highly recommended it for any DIY issue.

I'm having 2 sennheiser md-441 mics here which after resoldering the broken wire at the coil are sounding bad.No highs, no basses.Also one of them was very sensible to direct-contact(fingers touching the housing) until it the capsule was readjusted a little bit inside the housing.But still sounding strange. Can anyone give me some contribution in the form of own experiences repairing these mics. a recplacing of the capsule is almost as expensive as purchasing it new. I could get a working reference 441 from a friend, so i would appreciate any suggestions about how-to make it, because i'm not a very trained technician.

Phil
 
I had a dysfunctional 441 last year (got it cheap on ebay). I got into an email conversation with one of the techs at Sennheiser USA who repairs them. He strongly advised me not to attempt repairs. The capsules are hand-made, and not amenable to repair--they generally replace them whole. It cost me a little over $400 US to get my capsule assembly (essentially, all of the guts) replaced. It was still cheaper than getting a new or factory refurbished 441.

I have to say, though, it was worth it. The 441 is the best-sounding dynamic I've ever heard, and extremely versatile.

Good luck

--Da5id
 
Hi David,

well, actually these high repair prizes were motivating me to give it a DIY-try. If noone else will be able to respond me here i think at least you make me think of getting the necessary money for repair being worth it for the outstanding quality of the mic.

Phil
 
I've tried to futz with several basket-case 421s and 441s. I've not been able to do anything with them.

Once they sound bad, they're paperweights.

Keith
 
Thanks SSLtech(really?)

for your contribution although it doesn't convience me 100 % that it should be imposible to do anything good to these mics.
Anyone else ?

Phil
 
well, depends on what exactly is wrong. i think keith was refering to more of a capsule issue, which would be near impossible to fix. if you broke a solder joint somewhere it could be an easy fix. no idea.
 
Yeah,

I pulled apart a dodgy 421 from a studio I was working in... man they make it hard. First you have to gouge off the id plate, undo a bunch of screws & then they fill one section that you need to remove to get to the capsule with glue! You are definitely not supposed to be look inside one of these. And when I finally got it all apart... the capsule was kaput! Was kind of a fun experience though!

Justin.
 
Yes indeed, I was referring to the capsule/transformer which is one big assembly in the 421. If either half of that goes open circuit you're screwed. If there's a frequency response issue it's usually a mechanical problem like a binding coil or a deformed diaphragm... in either of those cases, you're still screwed.

asm is correct in that you can fix a "wire that came off"... but then you get no signal, and that's really rather uncommon compared to the "weak signal" or "no balls" faults. -If you have a signal but it's not a good signal, it's time to throw the mic away, or sell it on eBay with the usual "I have no way of testing it" disclaimer... or you can be really ballsy and say "This is the exact mic favoured by people like Daniel Lanois, Quincy Jones, Vanilla Ice and Tiny Tim for its rich, warm tone" and sell it safe in the knowlege that whatever fool buys it based on that kind of preposterous sales pitch deserves what he gets!

"fixing" 421's and 441's basically means either re-soldering a wire, or replacing the capsule assembly. Beyond that is utterly beyond the capabilities of anyone who doesn't happen to own a Sennheiser factory.

Yes, really! :wink:

keith
 
no no no, you forgot the much loved word "vintage" in there keith.

you know youve got to use it mutiple times to raise the price when selling on ebay.
 
If you solder to the wrong spot (on the wrong side of the inductor) you can get it to sound funny. I did that accidentally with an AKG D112. By the way, the D112 was really easy to get apart and put back together.
 
I really enjoy the massive support here. GREAT.
As soon as i can i'll give it another try of my one.
 

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