kidvybes
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2011
- Messages
- 280
micaddict said:
...we have been having that debate over at realgearonline.com, as to whether the height of the capsule mount in the U47 was deliberate and if so, for what purpose...do the rumors it was designed to limit plosives/sibilance have any historical basis?...so I decided to reach out to a few "experts" and here's what they had to say about it...
Here's Klaus Heyne's thoughts on the positioning of the U47 capsule:
"The U47 capsule mount is at the end of a stiff rubber column whose height and material properties need to be an ideal compromise between elasticity (shock absorption) and stiffness (preventing the capsule to whiplash against the inside of the head basket after a shock). Making it shorter gets you into the territory of the C12 and its capsule mount problem: heavy subsonic Trittschall-transmission. The whole thing transmits too much at 20 hz and below when triggered with even the smallest external excitement.
The secondary, and probably unintended (positive) consequence of the column length Neumann chose is this: the higher you place the capsule inside the basket, the father away it gets from two parallel and reflective surfaces-the basket wall and the base plate-and the closer it gets to the domed (and diffractive) top.
Here is an experiment I have made a few times to understand the real-world consequences of an acoustical obstacle placed close to a diaphragm: mount the same CK12 capsule, once in a C12 (no obstacle in front of the front diaphragm) and then in a C24 (a nasty support bar crossing right through the middle of the front diaphragm): I cannot hear an difference.
That leads me to believe that the small circular weld connecting the U47's cylindrical basket with the domed portion of the basket must be quite negligible, acoustically.
I speculate that the capsule's proximity to the support/weld was known, considered, and found to be not a fatal flaw for the overall head design."
...I then got a response from David Bock :
"Nothing Neumann did, or does, is unintentional.
Even when they use series reg on re-issue U67 psu's (!!!!!), or internal switching psu on fet mics. Tells you everything.
Remember, they used to RUN the microphone world."
...And Toni Roger Fishman of Telefunken had this to say:
"The internal capsule mount has changed form the original design. The first 200 U47 had a mesh surround that was like a divider that split the head grill I will look for some photos and try to post them but this is very rare and hard to find as so many mics have been modified. This (pic below) is the real way it was to be set up but why they changed to what we see today would take much research to figure out.
The height is slightly shorter in the original and taller in the later units. It would be interesting to do some test with modified capsule mounts and heights. We may be willing to look into some tests as I've always wanted to make the earlier mount available to those that needed the parts to restore the fist 200 units to stock."
