Soliloqueen's k87(k67) and k47 capsules

[rogs]

JLI also sells the dual-channel circuit (populated board) and the breakout cable for a dual-out microphone, for a whole lot less than the Endora microphone kit. There are Instructables how-tos about building mics with those circuits.....

For those of you in the USA, the JLI range looks interesting for DIY enthusiasts...
.... Outside the USA, JLI shipping costs can be pretty high .... even the PCBs become quite expensive.

Those outside the USA - and perhaps on a tight budget? - might like to consider looking at one of the OPIC projects HERE as a DIY alternative?
( Similar in concept to the JLI OPA Alice mic circuits, but with a bit less noise - and a bit more headroom! )

 

[dbrecording]

Reporting back in! I received my Flat K47 and have it installed in my mic project. I purchased an LTM 500 while they were still available and did some minor upgrades to it prior to the capsule install including swapping the 12AX7 for a 12AY7 removing a few caps (C9, C10). My lovely wife helped us with a before and after comparison strumming some chords on her acoustic. For the comparison, she was about 1.5-2 feet away from the mic, which was set to cardiod and patched directly to an open channel on my behringer FCA1616 interface, no eq or plugins involved just bounced directly out of Logic. I am blown away by the flat k47! Love it so far! Sounds Huge and tamed the Sizzle!
Thanks Soliloqueen!






Before (K67 style stock capsule)



View attachment Project ltm500 AG Before.wav

After (Flat K47 capsule)

View attachment Project ltm500 AG After.wav

 

[micolas]

Reporting back in! I received my Flat K47 and have it installed in my mic project. I purchased an LTM 500 while they were still available and did some minor upgrades to it prior to the capsule install including swapping the 12AX7 for a 12AY7 removing a few caps (C9, C10). My lovely wife helped us with a before and after comparison strumming some chords on her acoustic. For the comparison, she was about 1.5-2 feet away from the mic, which was set to cardiod and patched directly to an open channel on my behringer FCA1616 interface, no eq or plugins involved just bounced directly out of Logic. I am blown away by the flat k47! Love it so far! Sounds Huge and tamed the Sizzle!
Thanks Soliloqueen!

View attachment 121996




Before (K67 style stock capsule)



View attachment 121999

After (Flat K47 capsule)

View attachment 122000

Hi, dbrecording!
Can you post a comparison with a vocal test?
Thanks!

 

[dbrecording]

Hi, dbrecording!
Can you post a comparison with a vocal test?
Thanks!

Hi Micolas,
I can def post a vocal with the upgraded mic, might not be able to do the compare since I have already swapped the capsule and having everything playing nicely for now - will post soon!

 

[micolas]

Hi Micolas,
I can def post a vocal with the upgraded mic, might not be able to do the compare since I have already swapped the capsule and having everything playing nicely for now - will post soon!

OK,
the voice is a much more complex and difficult to mic, and more relevant than the guitar
Also, a vocal recording with flat k47 would be interesting.Even without comparing with the stock capsule
Thanks!

 

[soliloqueen]

overall tone sounds about right. i wonder what's causing the harmonic at 1.8khz to stick out like that? room or positioning maybe?

 

[dbrecording]

This was just a quick sound check in a non treated dining room that opens into our family room. It was definitely the room. I have one of those kaotica style surround pop filters but left it off for the guitar recording. I will play around more and check back in. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[soliloqueen]

Hi,Ari!
The same conditions as the B-stock K47 capsules (functionality, price, warranty) will apply in this case as well
Arienne k87?
Thanks!

K67/K87 capsules don't have A and B grades the same way as K47 capsules, because we match the halves for sensitivity before they're put together. That's part of the reason why neumann switched to this design. There will be no B stock k87 capsules in the first place. There will, however, be B stock regular k47s.

 

[micolas]

This was just a quick sound check in a non treated dining room that opens into our family room. It was definitely the room. I have one of those kaotica style surround pop filters but left it off for the guitar recording. I will play around more and check back in. Thanks for the feedback! View attachment 122021

I would avoid the use of mic screens, reflexion filters, partial or closed, etc., for use close to the microphone, because they introduce early reflections, comb-filter, distortions of the spectral profile of the microphone.Kaotica EyeBall is no exception. Years ago I built several DIY versions, of different shapes, sizes and combinations of materials, influenced by the hype produced by SE, but they were of no use to me.
There is no substitute for proper acoustic treatment of the recording space.
Very good information here:
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/how-effective-are-portable-vocal-booths

 

[micolas]

K67/K87 capsules don't have A and B grades the same way as K47 capsules, because we match the halves for sensitivity before they're put together. That's part of the reason why neumann switched to this design. There will be no B stock k87 capsules in the first place. There will, however, be B stock regular k47s.

Hi Ari,
I was thinking about k87 capsules that deviate from the class of
tolerance that you have established (FR, capacity, sensitivity, mechanical/ aesthetic imperfections, etc.) and departs from the historical k67/87 sound profile, but they
can be used for different experiments (that can sometimes lead to surprising results)
Many Thanks!

 

[soliloqueen]

Hi Ari,
I was thinking about k87 capsules that deviate from the class of
tolerance that you have established (FR, capacity, sensitivity, mechanical/ aesthetic imperfections, etc.) and departs from the historical k67/87 sound profile, but they
can be used for different experiments (that can sometimes lead to surprising results)
Many Thanks!

They don't leave the building if they have these problems because that's what we focus on in our QC. those capsules are disassembled and reassembled, and if they continue to fail the backplates are disposed of as scrap. the issues we have had happened explicitly because they don't cause problems in any of these things. instead it's stuff like spacers deforming over time, come and go shorting issues, etc. these are procedural issues that affect every capsule from a batch and can't really be categorized or sold as b-stock. as an example, this current batch of k87s i have sitting here. the previous batch was unaffected by this issue, but the current batch has vent issues due to the spacers being softer than the previous order i got from that supplier. this resulted in a batch that tested normally at assembly but drifted later. (I have to buy and ship in my own plastic to the die shop and fingerprint it to make sure they're using the right plastic. Lesson learned.)

(ideally) we reject capsules that have response problems like this at QC 1, so they never have the opportunity to become b-stock.

 

[micolas]

They don't leave the building if they have these problems because that's what we focus on in our QC. those capsules are disassembled and reassembled, and if they continue to fail the backplates are disposed of as scrap. the issues we have had happened explicitly because they don't cause problems in any of these things. instead it's stuff like spacers deforming over time, come and go shorting issues, etc. these are procedural issues that affect every capsule from a batch and can't really be categorized or sold as b-stock. as an example, this current batch of k87s i have sitting here. the previous batch was unaffected by this issue, but the current batch has vent issues due to the spacers being softer than the previous order i got from that supplier. this resulted in a batch that tested normally at assembly but drifted later. (I have to buy and ship in my own plastic to the die shop and fingerprint it to make sure they're using the right plastic. Lesson learned.)

(ideally) we reject capsules that have response problems like this at QC 1, so they never have the opportunity to become b-stock.

Hi Ari!
I understand. You are not interested in a certain business model, which unfortunately is more and more common (focused on profit maximization at the expense of quality). Excellent! Nowadays you rarely find transparency, honesty, trust, stability, predictability, respect for customers.
You really want to maintain the highest quality standard, to offer without exception top products, to equal (and why not, to surpass brands with established reputations).
I think, and I'm not the only one, that Arienne Audio is already a big name.
You have our full appreciation for all of this.
Thank you!

 

[soliloqueen]

Hi Ari!
I understand. You are not interested in a certain business model, which unfortunately is more and more common (focused on profit maximization at the expense of quality). Excellent! Nowadays you rarely find transparency, honesty, trust, stability, predictability, respect for customers.
You really want to maintain the highest quality standard, to offer without exception top products, to equal (and why not, to surpass brands with established reputations).
I think, and I'm not the only one, that Arienne Audio is already a big name.
You have our full appreciation for all of this.
Thank you!

i appreciate the kind words. i am... doing my best. making capsules is extremely hard. but things are going much smoother. out of the 200 or so flat k47s i just processed, the only outright rejects (only 1% of units!) were due to shipping damage, and my goal is to make that true in general going forward. these past 8 months have been very punishing, but i am hoping to be out of the tunnel soon. the k47 is relatively easy. it's plastic bolted to metal. when you start adding chambers and isolation, like the k87, things start to get wonky. with each added complexity and different-specified part, the difficulty is multiplied, not added together. that's why the ck12 is such a notorious capsule, you know? when i went into this, i went into it thinking that the k47 was a more difficult capsule than the k67 and k87, because that's what i'd heard from others online, so i felt confident that if we could do a good k47, we could probably do a good k87. i was wrong. the k87 is an unbelievably picky capsule to get sounding truly good under critical listening and working well electrically. it absolutely will not tolerate many things that are totally fine to do to a k47, or even an m7.

 

[Khron]

when i went into this, i went into it thinking that the k47 was a more difficult capsule than the k67 and k87, because that's what i'd heard from others online

Might that have been because, with separate halves, one would be able to mix&match, as opposed to both sides being bolted to the same backplate?

 

[soliloqueen]

Might that have been because, with separate halves, one would be able to mix&match, as opposed to both sides being bolted to the same backplate?

yeah, but our machining is already pretty tight so we never really ran into those sorts of issues to begin with

 

[micolas]

i appreciate the kind words. i am... doing my best. making capsules is extremely hard. but things are going much smoother. out of the 200 or so flat k47s i just processed, the only outright rejects (only 1% of units!) were due to shipping damage, and my goal is to make that true in general going forward. these past 8 months have been very punishing, but i am hoping to be out of the tunnel soon. the k47 is relatively easy. it's plastic bolted to metal. when you start adding chambers and isolation, like the k87, things start to get wonky. with each added complexity and different-specified part, the difficulty is multiplied, not added together. that's why the ck12 is such a notorious capsule, you know? when i went into this, i went into it thinking that the k47 was a more difficult capsule than the k67 and k87, because that's what i'd heard from others online, so i felt confident that if we could do a good k47, we could probably do a good k87. i was wrong. the k87 is an unbelievably picky capsule to get sounding truly good under critical listening and working well electrically. it absolutely will not tolerate many things that are totally fine to do to a k47, or even an m7.

Yes, you have an amazing pedagogical talent, you explain the essence of things very well I understand perfectly, (I think even those who do not necessarily have a technical education understand the details), in conclusion, let's hope that you will produce the historical K47 in series as soon as possible and even Arienne M7 !

 

[JohnnyM]

Afternoon. Should international customers (UK) have received a shipping notification by now? Sorry to bug

 

[soliloqueen]

Afternoon. Should international customers (UK) have received a shipping notification by now? Sorry to bug

Forwarder is still counting and sorting

 

[JohnnyM]

Forwarder is still counting and sorting

Appreciated thank you

 

[EarthTone]

How are things looking as far as a timeline for the K87’s? I pre-ordered a pair in early January.