Soliloqueen's k87(k67) and k47 capsules

[soliloqueen]

Re: my previous posts about electret charged capsules. You may have wondered "what if it's electret charged but not enough to collapse?"

It begins to function without polarization. Here's an accidental electret k67 outputting the 10khz tone from the LCR as a speaker. It's loud!

View attachment VID_20250304_194924_259.mp4

 

[soliloqueen]

Hi Arienne,
out of curiosity why are you registering your company in the UK instead of registering it in EU?

nothing i sell is under the ioss value limit after shipping cost. there's no system for me to pay eu vat

 

[micolas]

@soliloqueen

Dear Ari, thank you for everything you are and do for all of us!
May you continue to shine, inspire, and break barriers.

Wishing you a wonderful
Women's Day!

 

[soliloqueen]

We are officially in production at the new machine shop, totally new versions of the k47v and k87 will be dropping soon.

At this point I’ve vertically integrated control of everything, haha. I have control over the metalwork, the rings, the spacers, the screws, the film and every way it's processed, every part of the assembly procedure, the whole deal. It’s been fun to learn to do everything from scratch and not rely on any factory. I even had to do **** like freeze cycle testing for the center inserts on the capsules to find the best way to insert them and the best materials for them to be made out of to survive sub zero shipping:

such a beautiful m7 to spend 4 days sitting on top of a bag of green beans...
Lots of product dev starting from scratch. It was good fun, but I'm ready to get back to actually making these damn things.

 

[analag]

When will these be made available to the general public?

 

[ElSmurf]

such a beautiful m7 to spend 4 days sitting on top of a bag of green beans...

Never seen a sweaty mic capsule before...

 

[thomasdf]

Amazing dedication and craft(wo)manship ! Bravo Ari !
When is that new version of the k47v shipping ?

 

[soliloqueen]

I know nobody will care about this but now that I have absolute control over the Machining we had good fun going full vintage accuracy. On the new back plates we even replicated the process they used for drilling the holes. Does this make a difference? No. But why not? There are actually mechanical and speed advantages to doing it this way too, I see why Neumann decided to make the holes the way they did.


god it's hard to get a picture of the inside of 1mm wide holes

 

[ElSmurf]

god it's hard to get a picture of the inside of 1mm wide holes

Nothing a good macro lens can't handle

 

[soliloqueen]

Nothing a good macro lens can't handle

I have an extension tube somewhere

 

[AndyM]

I know nobody will care about this

Ari, rest assured, WE DO CARE about this! At least a good bunch of us does, I'm sure. Your attention to the tiniest details is amazing.

 

[soliloqueen]

Nothing a good macro lens can't handle

i literally have a whole lens and computational setup for microscopic surface evaluation and super macro photography i'm just lazy, hold on

 

[soliloqueen]

see now this is a little too macro. you can see how dirty the plate's gotten on my desk

 

[ZHOUJUN]

I know nobody will care about this but now that I have absolute control over the Machining we had good fun going full vintage accuracy. On the new back plates we even replicated the process they used for drilling the holes. Does this make a difference? No. But why not? There are actually mechanical and speed advantages to doing it this way too, I see why Neumann decided to make the holes the way they did.
View attachment 147791

god it's hard to get a picture of the inside of 1mm wide holes

Many years ago, I was engaged in the repair of audio equipment in our area, serving some world-famous brands. I received many orders for the repair of vintage Neumann. At that time, several Neumann U47 capsules and VF14 were damaged. I contacted Mr. Andreas Grosser in Germany through Neumann. Mr. Andreas Grosser was very patient and had very good skills. He helped me solve all the problems. From that time on, all my damaged vintage Neumann capsules and VF14s would be repaired by Andreas Grosser. During this period, we often communicated and I learned a lot. I also bought some microphone repair tools he made himself, as well as some instruments and accessories that he didn’t need, including several vintage microphones. Because of the special reasons such as the Internet blockade in my area, I couldn’t get these in other places.
He was always very humble to share his knowledge and told me things I didn't know. When it comes to Neumann's capsule technology, it is not rocket science and it is not difficult to repair. However, if you want to make a capsule with the same performance as Neumann, it is very challenging. Not only do you need some specially customized machines, but you also need rich experience and technology. Because Neumann has not leaked their capsule technology to the outside world, their process is judged by experience. When talking about Neumann's drilling technology, he said that Neumann's 34mm drilling process is carried out in several times. The internal structure is relatively special and requires a special drill bit, and then stamping may be required. After he passed away, I also repaired many old Neumann capsules myself. I personally verified his views that the manufacturing process of Neumann's old capsules is not as simple as it seems on the surface.Modern processing technology should be able to achieve this, but the cost will certainly be very high. It also requires the manufacture of some special fixtures and drills. However, it may be impossible to accurately test the impact of these special drilling structures on the sound. But why did Neumann insist on doing that? Not only did it increase the cost, but it also increased the difficulty of manufacturing. So in the end we can conclude that there must be a reason for doing this.

Glad someone is finally doing this now.

 

[soliloqueen]

Many years ago, I was engaged in the repair of audio equipment in our area, serving some world-famous brands. I received many orders for the repair of vintage Neumann. At that time, several Neumann U47 capsules and VF14 were damaged. I contacted Mr. Andreas Grosser in Germany through Neumann. Mr. Andreas Grosser was very patient and had very good skills. He helped me solve all the problems. From that time on, all my damaged vintage Neumann capsules and VF14s would be repaired by Andreas Grosser. During this period, we often communicated and I learned a lot. I also bought some microphone repair tools he made himself, as well as some instruments and accessories that he didn’t need, including several vintage microphones. Because of the special reasons such as the Internet blockade in my area, I couldn’t get these in other places.
He was always very humble to share his knowledge and told me things I didn't know. When it comes to Neumann's capsule technology, it is not rocket science and it is not difficult to repair. However, if you want to make a capsule with the same performance as Neumann, it is very challenging. Not only do you need some specially customized machines, but you also need rich experience and technology. Because Neumann has not leaked their capsule technology to the outside world, their process is judged by experience. When talking about Neumann's drilling technology, he said that Neumann's 34mm drilling process is carried out in several times. The internal structure is relatively special and requires a special drill bit, and then stamping may be required. After he passed away, I also repaired many old Neumann capsules myself. I personally verified his views that the manufacturing process of Neumann's old capsules is not as simple as it seems on the surface.Modern processing technology should be able to achieve this, but the cost will certainly be very high. It also requires the manufacture of some special fixtures and drills. However, it may be impossible to accurately test the impact of these special drilling structures on the sound. But why did Neumann insist on doing that? Not only did it increase the cost, but it also increased the difficulty of manufacturing. So in the end we can conclude that there must be a reason for doing this.

Glad someone is finally doing this now.

the process is pretty simple to discern looking at the profile of the hole, it's just unusual. it's actually faster and slightly cheaper than drilling and reaming