Schematic Sanken CU-41

[analogguru]

.... I messaged them about their super short 4" shotgun mic, ..... what I got back was a message .... without addressing my actual question, ....

That is a reason to buy a Sony ECM-Z60 instead. With a price of $ 10,-- for a used one there cannot go much wrong.

 

[RuudNL]

I get the impression that the Sanken after sales service is not too good...
The owner of the microphone has sent his CU-41 to Japan, but he got the reply that his microphone could not be repaired.
That is bad news, especially if you bought the microphone for  $2,875.
After a bit of fiddling with this microphone, the problem was a 20 cents capacitor...
So: couldn't they repair this microphone, or were they not interested to repair it?

 

[Icantthinkofaname]

I get the impression that the Sanken after sales service is not too good...
The owner of the microphone has sent his CU-41 to Japan, but he got the reply that his microphone could not be repaired.
That is bad news, especially if you bought the microphone for  $2,875.
After a bit of fiddling with this microphone, the problem was a 20 cents capacitor...
So: couldn't they repair this microphone, or were they not interested to repair it?

Looks like I've got another premium microphone manufacturer to avoid buying from. So far it's Telefunken (at least the Alchemy mics), Gefell (heard a lot of their recent mics are failing or require a ton of maintenance), and now Sanken.

If they refuse to repair an almost $3,000 for what turned out to be a faulty capacitor, I can just imagine the headache if one of their shotgun mics needs servicing. "Oh you used our moisture resistant microphone in light rain, too bad, we can't fix it".

 

[kingkorg]

The owner of the microphone has sent his CU-41 to Japan, but he got the reply that his microphone could not be repaired.
After a bit of fiddling with this microphone, the problem was a 20 cents capacitor...
So: couldn't they repair this microphone, or were they not interested to repair it?

I worked as product specialist for Korg/Vox for 10 years. I had, among others, duty of dealing with service manuals and some repair work within warranty period.

Japanese products were on one hand almost flawlessly and meticulously produced, and designed. But communication with Japanese peers in case of necessity was almost impossible, and not due to language barrier. It was a nightmare every time. It is down to how long your sentences are, how you formulate them, and how long it takes for them to read your eMail. Like 10 vs. 7 words eMail.

Their view on time, precision, communication, or just about anything is just of another planet. The cultural difference is so large, that i spent some time on YouTube trying to find best way to approach them. Never figured it out.

And we are talking official company channels.

No component service was ever recommended by them, board replacement always, even in case of serial errors where one bypass cap needed to be added. Like with Satriani's Time Machine delay pedal. Thousands of fully functioning boards lacking that bypass capacitor were scraped. Yes, i kept couple of those to my self khm...

Bottom line, in this case, no matter the fine i couldn't imagine a Japanese technician spend more than half an hour on something like this. They just won't. Waste of time for them, and i imagine they would consider it a waste of time for customer as well. One can insist all they want.