Are those Rayking mic capsules on Alibaba any good?

kingkorg · Apr 25, 2018

Long story short, it will work. Internaly phantom voltage is usually converted to higher voltages from 48v. But capsule will work.

MagnetoSound · Apr 25, 2018

See U87i

Icantthinkofaname · Apr 25, 2018

MagnetoSound said:
See U87i

So a capsule won't be as sensitive as it should without the DC-DC converter?

MagnetoSound · Apr 25, 2018

It won't be as sensitive as it could.

You get increased headroom, though.

RuudNL · Apr 26, 2018

Output of a condenser capsule is directly related to the polarisation voltage.
So: half the polarisation voltage = half the output, or -6 dB.
(And 6 dB worse signal-to-noise ratio, because the electronics keep producing noise at the same level...)

Bernhard · May 19, 2020

kingkorg said:
And here are starting from 1K for better resolution:
Blue - U87
Red - Rayking
Purple - OEM k67

The DIP between 5k and 8k on purple is typical for all of copies k67 i have tested so far. Neumann is the only one that doesn't have it. And it is absent in this Rayking as well, that is why i like it. With correct EQ applied it can sound closer to u87 than any k67 copy i have tested so far. Shure KSM44 doesn't have this dip either, and is known for sounding close to u87 even though it's edge terminated. I can agree with that.

My mic with Rayking capsule has switch that turns on and off this corrective eq, and therefore i have incredibly close u87 sounding mic and c12-ish sounding one with a flip of the switch.

Of course the mic with Tim Campbell's capsule is the only one of these that offers true C12/Elam character.

My own theory is that ''harshness'' in OEM k67 capsules comes from this dip just before huge HF rise. Try this kind of EQ on any source and it WILL GET HARSH! I believe it is very complex phase/resonance issue and is therefore not fixable with any kind of EQ.

I have given up on making u87 clone until i find original capsule for reasonable price. Until then this Rayking capsule is closest so far. I have asked few manufacturers of capsules that claim they produce spot on k67 replicas for frequency response measurements without smoothing. No one was willing to provide them.