Stellar X2 sibilant and peaky - hope to mod it for voicing

[Tim Parkes]

Hi All,

Had some great help in the past modding an SE 2000 (MXL 2001) thank you,
so here’s my next ide, to make the sound a little darker on this circuit.

Sound on Sound suggested that the X2 is the ‘flat response’ microphone and all rounder, whilst the X2 Vintage is the vocal, warmer and more specific sounding mic.
when I bought this X2 I couldn’t get the vintage one, but quickly realised it might be the ’vintage’ model sound I desire.

I’m OK with component swapping, so if anyone can suggest which to change I’d be very grateful.
it looks at first glance inside to be similar to a standard Neumann kind of circuit, but I could easily be wrong.

The capsule is bright, and is supposed to be rather good, so I’m thinking capacitors perhaps?
Any ideas welcome

thanks for looking
Tim

 

[Khron]

Quite the contrary, that looks like a pretty usual Schoeps type circuit. The board in the first couple of photos is the oscillator for the capsule bias voltage (single npn, diodes and two different-value inductors), the other board is the audio path (JFET, 2x 1Gohm resistors, 2x pnp's).

If the capsule is too bright, you might want to try adding a nF-range capacitor in parallel with R6 (assuming that's the one connecting to the drain of the JFET). Start with 1nF and go up from there if it's still too bright. Might want to consider having a resistor in series with that, if you find the capacitor on its own cuts off too much of the top end.

 

[oscarhuang]

Hi All,

Had some great help in the past modding an SE 2000 (MXL 2001) thank you,
so here’s my next ide, to make the sound a little darker on this circuit.

Sound on Sound suggested that the X2 is the ‘flat response’ microphone and all rounder, whilst the X2 Vintage is the vocal, warmer and more specific sounding mic.
when I bought this X2 I couldn’t get the vintage one, but quickly realised it might be the ’vintage’ model sound I desire.

I’m OK with component swapping, so if anyone can suggest which to change I’d be very grateful.
it looks at first glance inside to be similar to a standard Neumann kind of circuit, but I could easily be wrong.

The capsule is bright, and is supposed to be rather good, so I’m thinking capacitors perhaps?
Any ideas welcome

thanks for looking
Tim

https://groupdiy.com/threads/moded-my-steller-x2-mic.80417/This is my stellar X2 moded. Holp can help you.

 

[Tim Parkes]

Quite the contrary, that looks like a pretty usual Schoeps type circuit. The board in the first couple of photos is the oscillator for the capsule bias voltage (single npn, diodes and two different-value inductors), the other board is the audio path (JFET, 2x 1Gohm resistors, 2x pnp's).

If the capsule is too bright, you might want to try adding a nF-range capacitor in parallel with R6 (assuming that's the one connecting to the drain of the JFET). Start with 1nF and go up from there if it's still too bright. Might want to consider having a resistor in series with that, if you find the capacitor on its own cuts off too much of the top end.

Thanks so much!
I’ll take a look into this

 

[Tim Parkes]

https://groupdiy.com/threads/moded-my-steller-x2-mic.80417/This is my stellar X2 moded. Holp can help you.

Amazing - thank you very much.
I’m absolutely committed to getting a warmer and less bright sound

 

[oscarhuang]

Amazing - thank you very much.
I’m absolutely committed to getting a warmer and less bright sound

NP man.

 

[Tim Parkes]

So I wanted to give a little update on this mic, after a few months I ended up just swapping the capsule for a k47 dual backplate type and it sounded rich and midrangey, but somehow a little too forward on mids. Not good on my nasal voice. So last week I put an eBay-bought ck-12 clone capsule in and it’s silky. Very silky. Lovely bass and lovely mids.
I’m of the opinion that it’s a far better microphone with the CK-12 type capsule inside.
Techzone really ought to release on in this configuration !

 

[LevinGuitar]

Just curiosity, what value are the big red caps?