NADY TCM 1150 Tube Microphone Mods - More Photos

Any good modifications available for this microphone ?

I was going to add a 1Uf coupling cap to the tube and of course change out the tube for a good quality 6072A Mil grade

This microphone sounds decent for the $$$ though. Its the same mic as the Apex 460 tube microphone only cheaper. I don't know if the capsules are the same though.

Without a schematic, there's little that can be said (or at least little that would make any sense..)

Jakob E.

in the pic i see a china 6072.?

that stock design is one crappy layout. Gut it and build a new circuit in the body might be the best. Does it have about 190 V B+?

Standard china copy of The AKG "the tube", 1/2 of the triode gain stage to an 1/2 triode CF? I think the stock tube are the stuff china calls a 12at7.

3 or 6 micron capsule?

I have two 1050s that have been reworked all kind of ways(new GOOD transformers different circuits etc.) the stock 3 micron 32mm capsule suck in my 1050s, known good circuits and parts and still sounds like crap.

A 57 and a good preamp sound better.

The 6 micron version of the 32mm tends to sound better.

EDIT 8-27-2006 I did not change anything above.
I assumed the 1150 was just a repackaged 1050. It kind of is but two important differences.
One the B+ is different and the PCB in my 1050 power supply is a little different around the fil reg.
Two the grill is smaller and seems to work well with the stock capsule when other parts of the microphone are redone a little.

After helping someone redoing a 1150 There might be a way to keep the stock transformer and capsule grill body and just change a few parts.

thats the exact copy of my apex 160 microphone. typical chinese sold to many manufactures and then stamped with said logos.
Not to bad as is...

I've thought about using the body of one of those for a G7. It seems that there is plenty of room. I'd definitely move the tube up closer to the capsule, then solder the components directly in a point-to-point fashion. Of course you'd have to change the transformer, too. Maybe you could change the capsule, too.

On the other hand, it probably sounds pretty good as is, especially for the price. I personally don't mind the Nady 1050 for close up vocals, but others here seem to really dislike that mic.

Here was our original TCM1050 mod thread:
Here!

I put a capsule from a SCM1000 in my 1050 and I like it much better. I need to get a new trafo and put in Gus' mods still.

You might use Gus' schematic in that thread and check it against this model.

HTH!
Charlie

some more stuff. The MXLV69M has the tube mounted in the same kind of holder.

maxwall Do you have the B+,Plate,cathode and fil voltages?

Remember I am picky with microphones. The 32mm china stuff can sound OK with the right grill and circuits but the 34mm 797 and superlux capsules always seem to be better to my ears.

Is that nady multipattern? If so try it on male voice one or two clicks closer to fig 8 from the center cardiod setting. that will help bring up the prox effect.

[quote author="Gus"]...The 32mm china stuff can sound OK with the right grill and circuits but the 34mm 797 and superlux capsules always seem to be better to my ears...[/quote]Yeah, seems like when they make a cool copy of a vintage Neumann or AKG, they always put a lousy capsule in it, but when they make something that looks goofy, aka the SCM1000, they put the good 797 capsules in them. Why do things always seem to turn out that way??

Gus, can you tell what capsule is in the 1150? I know it isn't 797.

maxwall Do you have the B+,Plate,cathode and fil voltages?

Remember I am picky with microphones. The 32mm china stuff can sound OK with the right grill and circuits but the 34mm 797 and superlux capsules always seem to be better to my ears.

Is that nady multipattern? If so try it on male voice one or two clicks closer to fig 8 from the center cardiod setting. that will help bring up the prox effect.

Click to expand...

Gus,

Yeah I'd be happy to give out those voltages, but I'm a little green on were where to attach my voltage probes since I do not have a schematic in hand. Can you offer a little guidance ?

Also, how can I tell what type of capsule I have ? Yes, the power supply does have a multipattern selector switch.

A bump

the apex in the current thread looks like this.

I can't tell how the tube is wired from the pictures.

OK back to the 1150.....

Here are some more photo's for those interested. I Know what the consensus is on this POS mic , but I started replacing the polyester film capacitors with high grade Metallized Polypropylene caps. I have noticed that the sound is not as muddy it has opened up the clarity in the mics sound a lot. I have used same values so far in the replacements. except for one yellow bleed cap. Original value was ~1 nf the repalcement is a ~2.2 nf . also a Metallized Polypropylene grade. more to come.

Also , I cant identify the transformer , I'd like to replace it with a cinemag, but I don't know what to ask for 1:5 , 1:7, 1:10 ? Does anyone know ?

I'm going to be replacing resistors with 1% metal values instead of the original 5% carbon type. The large rectangular resitors are some I have not seen before. Very large resistance values 1KM ohm , 51M ohm , 200M ohm. Where do you get high grade versions of these ?

Already replaced the original chinese valve/tube with a RCA NOS 12AT7 black plate type. This improved the sound of the mic by giving it a thicker fuller sound, like tube mics should have.

Would like to see Apex 460 photo's posted here for comparison purposes.
Could some one post those ?













Cheers !!!

[quote author="maxwall"]OK back to the 1150.....


Would like to see Apex 460 photo's posted here for comparison purposes.
Could some one post those ?

Cheers !!![/quote]

Maxwall, They are the exact same microphone internally. They have identical components and PC boards. Only the logo on the mic body is different.

[quote author="Emperor-TK"][quote author="maxwall"]

Maxwall, They are the exact same microphone internally. They have identical components and PC boards. Only the logo on the mic body is different.[/quote]

I got e-mailed about this a few days ago. The mic is 99% the same. the 1% different in the logo. Much like I said in my e-mail, alot of these companies are getting the mics from the same factory in china and then just having their logo stampped on it...

Looks nearly identical to the Apex 460 I took apart. Same transformer for sure. I put in a 6072a tube and plan to go with a Cinemag Transformer. I already got a CM -96322 which is an 8.5 to 1 transformer. I can't tell you how it sounds yet cause we haven't hooked it up. Looks like it will juuuuust fit in the mic body. Its going to be really tight. Looks like we will have to angle the tube to get it to fit. Might need to move the tube up a hair by making some kind of extension for that rubber tube holder. I just had it apart and kind of sized it up with the tube. I haven't actually done it yet. Also, I can't tell you if the 8.5 to 1 is going to work well yet. Just my best guess and I am really a hacker at this. I see no way to mount the transformer, maybe just a zip tie or something.

Internals look identical to the ADK GT2, as well. Just wanted to throw another hat in the ring. With my GT2 I did the mods suggested by Gus and replaced the output transformer with a Cinemag CM-2480.

With my GT2 I did the mods suggested by Gus and replaced the output transformer with a Cinemag CM-2480.

Click to expand...

how did this affect the sound?

The mod cleaned up the sound a lot. The stock mic was very interesting sounding, in a sort of sizzle and boom, lo-fi way. The modded mic captures much more presence and detail.

Just recently I used it on two very different vocalists in one day. The first was a rock vocalist who required a lot of compression, but made good use of the proximity effect, kind of "working the mic." The second vocalist was smooth and silky, we used the mic in omni and just a bit of limiting. He started referring to the mic as "The Kid-A Mic" and I overheard him talking excitedly to his girlfriend on the phone, saying "I sound just like Thom Yorke through this."

I will have clips on my website soon of these recordings, just gotta finish the mixing.

How about sharing some pics of your mic mods ?

Also, Is the TCM1050 the same internals, I do not have one to compare to ?

These pics are before modding. I didn't take any pics after, but there isn't much difference, just a large polypropolene output cap, the new trafo and a few wires re-routed.



Component side of the board.



Back of board, and the tube. It's NOS Telefunken.