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Tim Parkes

Active member
Joined
Mar 27, 2022
Messages
29
Location
Kidderminster
Hi all, thanks for accepting my request to join.
I’ve been looking for circuit mods for my SE 2000 condenser mic, I’ve never really liked the sound of it, it’s bright and scratchy.
I put and RK 47 type capsule in the mic recently, very little change, perhaps a little more mid-range.
I’m wondering what could be done for midrange frequencies emphasis. Any component ideas welcome, unfortunately I haven’t checked in between the PCBs yet for parts.
When I wrote to SE Electronics asking for a schematic for this discontinued mic (it’s the first iteration of the mic) they would not help, I managed to get the wiring polarities from them, but they were super cagey.
I mean, it looks A LOT like a bunch of other Chinese mics available out there.

I can swap out components solder/desolder, check values with multimeter but I’m certainly not an electronics or electrics engineer, more a musician and tinkerer who just wants to get the best out of my mics.

Thank you for your advice :)

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CE2F4CF9-B578-4701-BEC6-45D891B7C708.jpeg
 
Should be same circuit as MXL2001 with schematic aviable, maybe the parts number will be different. If your C3 is 220pf, try a 270pf, should become a bit less bright.

BTW you could check Google, there is a unofficial schematic aviable for your microphone in RecordingHacks

http://recordinghacks.com/images/mic_extras/se/se2000-schematic.jpg
Another question, apologies LevinGuitar, what’s the voltage?
i’ve seen some Wima 270pf 100V caps available, just wondering if there’s more information I need?
 
It's the capsule polarization voltage, should be no more than 48v in that circuit. Even a 63v cap could be ok there.

If you will make an order, take 300pf or 330pf also, if you want it even darker
 
Thanks so much!
I’ll try some higher values. Does it matter about polarity direction/current direction?
LevinGuitar you’ve been so helpful thank you so much.
 
I guess there is no polarized capacitors in such small capacitance, so don't worry

Once, I have tried upgrade all important caps in a similar circuit, it was a somewhat better, definately cleaner and a bit deeper but also brighter, so would not do it again. Try an audio grade electrolityc C4 of same value, careful with polarity here! A good cap can't do worse than the talantum here and maybe you would like it a bit more.


A question for Pro people here:

Can the biasing be changed to the old style directly grounding C4? I remember Piotr did not like this chinese way of biasing fets but I don't know what was the theory behind it. What would be the benefit in this circuit?
 
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Thanks very much - I’ll look into tantalum caps at some point. i’ll See how the 270pf and 330pf sound.
audiophile caps can get pretty expensive but maybe I’ll find one
 
If you didn't notice the improvement by swapping the capsule i suspect anything you "hear" after swapping the component type such as capacitors would be the sound of confirmation bias.

The first thing you should have done after replacing the capsule to k47 is remove the pF range cap from the circuit. Than bias the fet. I hope this helps. Good luck.

 
Kingkorg - thanks so much for this. I’ll take a look.
The mic in the video has low cut and -10db switches too, like my SE2000.
I was thinking electrolytic might be good, our Dad used to repair electronics so has a nice little collection of a few caps/transistors etc to go through, we rebuilt an old Carlsbro 110W valve amp last year with some nice Panasonic caps, sounds awesome now.
 
Enjoying reading about confirmation bias. With the SE it just sounds thin, always did. The original capsule was super sibilant and thin. Even with colouration and compression is was thin.
The diaphragm split miraculously in 2002 after very light use so I forgot about it, last year I got the itch to write again and wanted to retrace my steps in terms of process. This mic came up from the storage box and I wondered to myself about making it thicker and smoother if possible.
 
To be sure you are avoiding confirmation bias, inject signal (dynamic song with a lot complexity for example) into jfet gate before you change anything, and record it. Repeat after every component change in the circuit under the same exact conditions and use null test to hear the differences. I use usually -30 to -20db signal level from my audio interface.
 
Ok thank you.
Lots to go through here, and thanks so much for the framework to follow. A great way for me to get my head around the circuits and begin to understand current flow.
Thank you both for your time and advice! This forum is incredible
 
Hello again both,


Thanks so far for all of the advice - this morning I swapped C4 for an electrolytic Panasonic 22uf/16vCap and at C3 a 330pf 50V. The sound recorded is a little better to my ears and on the EQ in Logic, there appears to be a slight lift around 2k.
I'm watching the video a few times on set Biasing so that I get a grip of it, I haven't done this yet.
The mic still has the same character background hiss - Just in case I have put C4 in the wrong way round - KingKorg are you able to clarify polarity in the schematic? Can I see this in the drawing?

So far so good, thanks for your help both.
 
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