Lifelongmusic K47 capsule (Alctron? UK eBay seller)

[ChrisSead]

More questions!
Bought this K47 style capsule from 'lifelongmusic' on eBay UK a few weeks ago. Have been using it in a Rode NT-1A for the past few weeks, definitely sounds good to my ears and feels akin to my voice on a U87 but with a bit more of a bump at around 5kHz. Definitely a K47 voicing with no awful 12kHz peak to speak of.

Just got curious if anybody knows the origin of these capsules? The seller seems to be mainly an Alctron dealer, but do they make K47s? Haven't seen any Aliexpress/baba capsules that look exactly similar, so peaked my interest. Must admit I only bought this one because I'm impatient and wanted quick shipping to the UK haha. Have asked the seller if they can provide any details as well.

EDIT: forgot to link it: 34mm DUAL GOLD MICROPHONE CAPSULE K47 RK47 M49 M149 MODIFICATIONS cek47 | eBay

 

[soliloqueen]

The thing about the independent capsule sector in China is that 1 or 2 companies make backplates and rings etc and then there are dozens of skinners that use that hardware. I can't say I've seen this person's work before. They must be a lesser-known skinner. It kind of reminds me of one of the alternate k87s getwin sells, so maybe it's an offering from that skinner I haven't seen before.

 

[ChrisSead]

The thing about the independent capsule sector in China is that 1 or 2 companies make backplates and rings etc and then there are dozens of skinners that use that hardware. I can't say I've seen this person's work before. They must be a lesser-known skinner. It kind of reminds me of one of the alternate k87s getwin sells, so maybe it's an offering from that skinner I haven't seen before.

Interesting! I suppose by mass-producing as much of it as possible that's how they get them so cheap.

 

[mrgrooves666]

Pye had two k47 capsules available, is this the "regular" or the "premium"? Thnk its been a while since he had the premium in stock, was supposed to be very sweet sounding capsule.

 

[ChrisSead]

Pye had two k47 capsules available, is this the "regular" or the "premium"? Thnk its been a while since he had the premium in stock, was supposed to be very sweet sounding capsule.

This is the regular version, iirc the 'premium' one was in stock at the time I bought this (early Jan) but was quite a lot dearer. They also have a 'premium' C12 style.

 

[Drosselmeier]

https://aliexpress.ru/item/1005001937212432.html

 

[ChrisSead]

If anybody is interested: here's a comparison between this capsule in the NT1-A (in pink) and an unmodified original Rode NT-2 (in green). Just using REW and a Focal Alpha 50 monitor in a semi-treated room, so this is just a relative comparison between them. Unfortunately I didn't measure the NT1-A this way stock, but the NT-2 is fairly close in sound signature as far as I know.

I was already very happy with the sound but was quite interesting to measure these and find that what I was hearing was accurate -- nice bump at 4-5k, and then fairly flat above 10k.

 

[xeawr]

Thanks for sharing Chris! Did you perhaps record before and after sound samples?

 

[ChrisSead]

Thanks for sharing Chris! Did you perhaps record before and after sound samples?

I did! The project is a little bit of a mess but have found a nice take of acoustic guitar which I played similarly on both. The K47 definitely benefits from different mic placement on acoustic, but here I kept the positioning the same to keep the comparison as fair as possible. Hope you find this helpful/interesting.