Hi people,
As we all know Perception circuits are ripoff of u87, but don't sound like one because of the capsule. A fellow musician sent me vintage u87 to clean super dirty capsule, and two AKG P220 to try to match the sound to Neumann.
I found out by comparing and measuring the two, for some reason AKG has weaker HF attenuation, and brighter capsule. I just wanted to report that Neumann u87's C6 capacitor responsible for HF de emphasis network is super easy to reach and change.
By measuring frequency responses of u87 and P220 i came to conclusion that it needs to be changed to an 680pF capacitor, instead of original 220pF. You get incredible replica in minutes. It's just that Perception has better bass response , because i t's bass roll off is weaker as well. I didn't want to touch that. I sent files of the shootout to the owner, he picked wrong one to be Neumann. Probably due to AKG's better bass response. Akg is louder, and has less noise. Modded even less due to more HF attenuation. By googling i found that people report this cap to have up to 870pF in some Neumanns. This value gave me u67 kind of response.
No need to disassemble any boards, it's right in front of you when you open the mic. This should work for other Perception mics as well. Might be tricky for newbies to remove smd cap.
One thing to add, AKG is built like a tank!
I'll upload audio files and frequency response graphs tomorrow.
Here is the cap we are talking about.
2023 Update:
Just got a image from the producer I modified first two ever for. These guys can choose any mic they'd like, including original, vintage u87 these were moded after, but seem to keep coming back to these.
As we all know Perception circuits are ripoff of u87, but don't sound like one because of the capsule. A fellow musician sent me vintage u87 to clean super dirty capsule, and two AKG P220 to try to match the sound to Neumann.
I found out by comparing and measuring the two, for some reason AKG has weaker HF attenuation, and brighter capsule. I just wanted to report that Neumann u87's C6 capacitor responsible for HF de emphasis network is super easy to reach and change.
By measuring frequency responses of u87 and P220 i came to conclusion that it needs to be changed to an 680pF capacitor, instead of original 220pF. You get incredible replica in minutes. It's just that Perception has better bass response , because i t's bass roll off is weaker as well. I didn't want to touch that. I sent files of the shootout to the owner, he picked wrong one to be Neumann. Probably due to AKG's better bass response. Akg is louder, and has less noise. Modded even less due to more HF attenuation. By googling i found that people report this cap to have up to 870pF in some Neumanns. This value gave me u67 kind of response.
No need to disassemble any boards, it's right in front of you when you open the mic. This should work for other Perception mics as well. Might be tricky for newbies to remove smd cap.
One thing to add, AKG is built like a tank!
I'll upload audio files and frequency response graphs tomorrow.
Here is the cap we are talking about.
2023 Update:
Just got a image from the producer I modified first two ever for. These guys can choose any mic they'd like, including original, vintage u87 these were moded after, but seem to keep coming back to these.
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