rock soderstrom
Tour de France
Success story: Repairing a strange tube microphone.
A woman close to me asked me to repair this yellow tube microphone! Who could say no? It's super urgent again, of course, so I took care of it straight away.
A first visual inspection amazes me, the design of the microphone is really unusual. It has a relatively wide head basket and is probably intended for very wide or very slim sound sources, depending on how you mount it. The color is a bit unusual, I wouldn't use it in my studio. But tastes are different...
What's really stupid is that the usual accessories like pop shields don't fit, the thing doesn't even have a tripod thread. What's the point? Once again, the product design&marketing department has outdone itself...
The first function test showed that the thing does nothing, niente, nada, nüscht!
I think I need to throw my cape over and fire up the soldering iron - looks like a job for me. Let's go!
I've never seen a microphone with so many body screws, needless to say there are no schematics on the manufacturer's website - they'd rather spend their money on their design- and marketing departments. Kärcher, never heard of it - note the fake german umlaut.
Lets open it. No problem for a well-stocked workshop, Lidl recently sold a bit set with the most exotic shapes you can imagine. I love Parkside!
A little fun fact - the head basket is detachable, just like the expensive vintage models - marketing knows no bounds...the container for collecting the singers' spit can also be removed. Not bad!
Now it's getting exciting - let's finally open the mic!
What is that? That's not a tube microphone at all? I can't see a single tube, unbelievable.
Not even a starving fake tube with LED lighting, nothing! The greed for money in the pro audio sector knows no limits - whom can you still trust?
After the initial shock of this nasty scam, I took a closer look at the microphone. It is battery-buffered(!) and most of the components are SMT.
The capsule, or rather the transducer, was unknown to me at first, but a closer look reveals the transducer principle. It is an air-driven, motorized capsule. The air flowing out when singing drives the rotor, which in turn moves the motor. The more air hits the rotor, the louder the signal becomes. Brilliant - I could have thought of that!
But the problem remains, this microphone is dead as a doornail. The dedicated power supply seems to work, note the low voltage, this is the reason why phantom power does not work here, because the power consumption is too high. This is due to the motor-driven transducer!
I think I know why the microphone no longer works, I have a feeling!
The answer will follow in the second part!
A woman close to me asked me to repair this yellow tube microphone! Who could say no? It's super urgent again, of course, so I took care of it straight away.
A first visual inspection amazes me, the design of the microphone is really unusual. It has a relatively wide head basket and is probably intended for very wide or very slim sound sources, depending on how you mount it. The color is a bit unusual, I wouldn't use it in my studio. But tastes are different...
What's really stupid is that the usual accessories like pop shields don't fit, the thing doesn't even have a tripod thread. What's the point? Once again, the product design&marketing department has outdone itself...
The first function test showed that the thing does nothing, niente, nada, nüscht!
I think I need to throw my cape over and fire up the soldering iron - looks like a job for me. Let's go!
I've never seen a microphone with so many body screws, needless to say there are no schematics on the manufacturer's website - they'd rather spend their money on their design- and marketing departments. Kärcher, never heard of it - note the fake german umlaut.
Lets open it. No problem for a well-stocked workshop, Lidl recently sold a bit set with the most exotic shapes you can imagine. I love Parkside!
A little fun fact - the head basket is detachable, just like the expensive vintage models - marketing knows no bounds...the container for collecting the singers' spit can also be removed. Not bad!
Now it's getting exciting - let's finally open the mic!
What is that? That's not a tube microphone at all? I can't see a single tube, unbelievable.
Not even a starving fake tube with LED lighting, nothing! The greed for money in the pro audio sector knows no limits - whom can you still trust?
After the initial shock of this nasty scam, I took a closer look at the microphone. It is battery-buffered(!) and most of the components are SMT.
The capsule, or rather the transducer, was unknown to me at first, but a closer look reveals the transducer principle. It is an air-driven, motorized capsule. The air flowing out when singing drives the rotor, which in turn moves the motor. The more air hits the rotor, the louder the signal becomes. Brilliant - I could have thought of that!
But the problem remains, this microphone is dead as a doornail. The dedicated power supply seems to work, note the low voltage, this is the reason why phantom power does not work here, because the power consumption is too high. This is due to the motor-driven transducer!
I think I know why the microphone no longer works, I have a feeling!
The answer will follow in the second part!
) have already realized that I'm joking.
