Soliloqueen's k87(k67) and k47 capsules

[ubxf]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):

View attachment 113633

it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

Actually yes I'll buy one if you have a spare

 

[Recording Engineer]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):

View attachment 113633

it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

I’d absolutely take a pair!

 

[AUDIO FREQ]

Im almost scared to ask, but how much? Hehehehe.

 

[HerbertR]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):

View attachment 113633

it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

Genius, incredible ....no nervy 5K bump, and a nice air boost. Yeah.... I will place them with my pair Poctop D-47 Tubes. I can't believe it. Thanks!!!

 

[micolas]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):

View attachment 113633

it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

The sound in a flat circuit would resemble the 4th generation Rode NT1 Black, but with a bit more air. Of course, it also depends on the body and basket.
Kingkorg knows Rode NT1 4th generation capsule very well, can say more.

 

[micolas]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):

View attachment 113633

it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

In a circuit with minimal de-emphasis, for example a moderate U87, it could sound very close to the U89i, slightly more extended
Someone was asking the other day if Soliloqueen plans to produce a K89 capsule

 

[Dylan W]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):

View attachment 113633

it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

Maybe a stupid question, but does the alternate tension affect other aspects of the k87 sound, like pattern, transient response, etc, or is it just like making a pure EQ move after the fact?

 

[mjmajilton]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):

View attachment 113633

it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

I’ve been using a 35mm K67 that seems to be very much like that. Selling as a mic that’s bright but not harsh. Buyers have been pleased.

 

[Sun King]

Hi, would this K87 or K67 or K47 be a good option for replacing a capsule in a Rode NT2A?
And if so, how to order?

Thanks

 

[bremusound]

In a circuit with minimal de-emphasis, for example a moderate U87, it could sound very close to the U89i, slightly more extended
Someone was asking the other day if Soliloqueen plans to produce a K89 capsule

It won‘t sound like a U89 no matter how the chart looks like. The K89 has a smaller diameter which results in a different off axis response and a more consistent frequency response at different polar patterns.

 

[micolas]

It won‘t sound like a U89 no matter how the chart looks like. The K89 has a smaller diameter which results in a different off axis response and a more consistent frequency response at different polar patterns

Bremusound, you're absolutely right, it's not a k89 capsule, I apologize if I wasn't more specific, I was referring strictly to the cardioid mode, in the axial direction, the situation in which many work in modest home studio conditions.
In a circuit with a little de-emphasis we get very close to the cardioid response of the 89i

 

[Whoops]

Hi, would this K87 or K67 or K47 be a good option for replacing a capsule in a Rode NT2A?
And if so, how to order?

Thanks

Im no expert here in terms of capsules engineering but I’m a very experienced sound engineer, and my experience with Rode LDC mics is that I really dislike the high end specially the sibilance of all of them, so personally for my own taste a capsule like the K47 which doesn’t have a boost in the 7khz to 12khz would be a better fit than the voicing the stock circuit has.

My 2 cents

 

[venusaudio]

I'm out sick and I haven't been able to sleep, so I might as well bounce out or reply to this. This post does not going to be very elegant marketing, that will come when we actually launch. A couple years ago I got interested in capsule design and manufacturing. I bought a micrometer and some pin gauges and digitized about a dozen capsules about as precisely as I could (The k87 alone has almost a thousand revisions in fusion 360 from measuring and re-measuring different samples). I started hunting down manufacturing partners. First locally in Southwest Michigan, then globally. I think I got quotes from over 250 machine shops over the course of the last year alone. At first, I was going to skin them all myself, but my disability made that frustrating and not very feasible, so I started looking for someone to do that too. Basically no existing capsule company was willing to be a contract skinner, except this almost brand new company of ex employees from a larger capsule company. While I was sourcing quotes for the backplates, I had them throw together a manufacturing sample to extremely tight specifications to check their skinning consistency. This was my initial run of k47 capsules. Unlike my launch product, the k87, which is built from scratch, the k47 was not (what I would consider to be) a "real product" and used an existing backplate, though still unique, because it had not insignificant differences in the manufacturing and skinning and a lot of really precise changes because I wanted to see how they could handle that sort of thing. They nailed it, and the result of them tolerating my hyperpedantic whining was unexpectedly probably the best k47 I've ever heard. I really wanted feedback on how the manufacturing quality was overall, so I did something potentially very stupid: I packed them up and mailed them directly to the meanest person I could find, knowing full well that if they sucked or were a scam in any way, he would follow me to the ends of the Earth and never let me sell a single capsule for the rest of my life. Somehow, he actually thought they were amazing, and so the business was feasible! I sent a ton of them out for free where I could afford it, and charged more or less at cost for the rest. I got a lot of really great feedback from a lot of users here.

It was never my intention to use pre-existing backplates for a capsule product, but at this point I ran out of money (Probably should have sold the test capsules for more than cost, but I didn't feel like I could get them out to a diverse enough group to get good opinions doing that) Unexpectedly, my friend Josh from Dachman Audio was like "so you have everything mostly worked out and you just need money? No problem. I've been looking for a new OEM anyway." and he funded the whole thing! Which is unbelievable, this project would not have gotten this far without his help. Long story short, I'm now about to launch a k87 to retail and OEM customers which is manufactured from scratch. Not a rebranded cheap catalog capsule. Completely from scratch! Pricing will be somewhere between 3u and boutiques.

The capsule itself is based on one of the old old k67s with the brass rings and the side groove that someone was kind enough to lend me. List of changes from the vintage capsule I used as a reference in the current sample:
Center termination acrylic goes all the way through instead of halfway
M1.4 screws
I moved the ring of screw holes outwards so that I could buy existing plastic rings in bulk to avoid having to pay for a mold.

That's it! everything else is more or less the same! I verified a lot of times with my micrometer, depth micrometer and pin gauges. At first I thought the holes were too small and the trench around the holes was too narrow, but it turns out that's actually an optical illusion from interreflection from the polished finish on the insides of the holes and trench where the original capsules were variably more satin/matte, either from age or manufacturing process differences. The dimensions are definitely accurate. The side groove for the old mounting style was kind of difficult to work with, so copied the chamfers of a later k87 just for fun. Maybe if I make a k67 it will return. In future batches once we get things rolling, I might reverse these changes to make them aesthetically identical to the original capsule too, but that's a secondary goal. The pictures here are of a sample that is slightly outdated compared to the one I sent to kingkorg. The machine shop got the hole depth slightly wrong, but it still makes for pretty photos!

View attachment 99829View attachment 99830View attachment 99831View attachment 99832

I'm going to try to sleep again now, thanks for the interest guys. Post formatting on mobile is a nightmare...

Hello everybody here,

I just arrived to the forum and I am interesting to also get a K47 capsule for my DIY B-U47 mic as far the donor body is a B1 from Behringer with its involving 797 circuit. What is please the cost and the procedure to order the Soliloqueen flat K47?

Thank you.

 

[soliloqueen]

Hello everybody here,

I just arrived to the forum and I am interesting to also get a K47 capsule for my DIY B-U47 mic as far the donor body is a B1 from Behringer with its involving 797 circuit. What is please the cost and the procedure to order the Soliloqueen K47?

Thank you.

There's a tad bit of a wait right now since we're moving manufacturing somewhere else. Normally it's on my site in the white market and around $120

 

[venusaudio]

There's a tad bit of a wait right now since we're moving manufacturing somewhere else. Normally it's on my site in the white market and around $120

Could you please give me your site address in order to visit and order?
Thank you.

 

[Hee Jung Park]

방문 및 주문을 위해 사이트 주소를 알려주실 수 있나요?
감사합니다.

Arienne Audio Arienne Audio – Microphone Capsules

 

[venusaudio]

Arienne Audio Arienne Audio – Microphone Capsules

Thank you very much. I am already in touch. Have a nice day.

 

[ElSmurf]

A quick and very subjective review of the K87 that I've been putting off. A month ago I visited a friend who'd bought himself a Warm Audio WA87 R2. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to compare it to my D87, since they cost about the same. The WA87 has a custom Cinemag transformer and a WA-87-B-50V capsule, whatever that means. My D87 has an AMI T13 and the Arienne K87.

We just did a quick test with his voice, since that's what he uses the mic for. The differences weren't night and day - both mics clearly sound like they're related - but they weren't subtle either. The WA87 had more low mids, but in a less controlled, flabby kind of way compared to my D87. The high mids were less present, and also a bit smeared. And the highs had this farty, splatty quality to them.
The D87 sounded less full - read, less flabby - in the low mids. The high mids were much more present, but with a very authoritative yet refined, expensive quality to them. And the highs were much smoother, less harsh, but with more extension past 12kHz. All in all a much more elegant and finished sound straight out of the mic.
The D87 took eq and compression much better than the WA87. But most of all, the D87 sounded much more like him. It was funny to see his face when he tried to eq the WA87 to sound more like the D87 and realize no amount of eq would bring that quality to the sound of his mic.

I noticed the same quality with my D-EF47 with the flat K47 - both these mics excel at reproducing the human nature of vocals. You just connect so much more easily to what you hear with these mics - with these capsules - than anything I've owned before. It's the same quality that I remember and experience from my most beloved recordings from the seventies and early eighties. And of course, this translates to much more engaged and engaging performances from the vocalist as well. You can talk number and graphs all day, but for me the most important thing these capsules have brought to the table is an increased emotional connection to the performance.

My friend ordered his K87 yesterday.

 

[metalockpick]

I can't wait to see comments on the WA unit with the AA capsule.
Ordinarily, Cinemag makes very good transformers, but being "custom" (read- likely, corners were cut to make it cheaper), we'll see. It's interesting that some people actively choose WA products. I chalk this up to that most people can't hear, and/or believe the hype from other people (who can't hear).

 

[thecr4ne]

my assembly engineer just messed up in a really interesting way. he accidentally picked diaphragms tensioned for a completely unrelated capsule (oem project) because he'd mixed a batch in the heat treatment oven without labeling them correctly and this bizarre result occurred (green, purple is neumann):


it sounds...quite interesting, actually. would anybody be interested in an almost completely flat k87 with a high shelf that's extended all the way up to 20k? i'm genuinely thinking of making more of these.

Definitely interested!