On 12/20/2020 8:26 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
Roy W. Rising wrote:
On Monday, December 14, 2020 at 6:37:25 AM UTC-8, Scott Dorsey wrote:
In article ,
Paul Dorman wrote:
What do you folks think about this?
https://dachmanaudio.com/da-87i-vint...er-microphone/
It comes in both kit form, and fully assembled.
I'd certainly love to save thousands!
Everyone and his brother makes a U87 clone. Some are better than others.
If everything else in the kit is true to the original, get a Neumann K87 capsule for less than $1K and put the Dachman capsule in inventory. Then do the blindfold test.
Unfortunately there are two critical things that cannot be true to the
original.
First is the shape of the grille, which actually makes quite a difference in
the sound. You can copy the material, but you can't copy the shape because it
is trademarked and Neumann is very aggressive about legal action. So all the
clones have slightly different grille shapes. The degree to which this changes
the sound is something that nobody has systematically tested.
The second is the diaphragm tensioning... the method Neumann uses today is
a secret. The method all the people copying Neumann capsules use is one
that Neumann abandoned some time in the sixties... and it can work well
only if very skilled people are doing the work very carefully. The KM53
was finally discontinued when the woman who could hand-tension those
capsules retired and they couldn't do it properly anymore. Today, Neumann
uses automated tensioning methods which among other things means a
consistently good null in figure-8 mode. Nobody outside Neumann has seen
it in operation and it has not yet been copied. (Most of the other big
companies also use automated systems but the Neumann method, whatever it is,
is clearly different than the ones Shure, A-T, and AKG are using.)
It's easy to make U87-style microphones, but it's hard to make them well
and I am not sure it's possible to make them exactly like Neumann.
If Neumann is so secretive, then why did they agree to do a
"How It's Made" video on the U87? This video is WAY too clean to be
from the 60's!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTZy-ThRXeY
And I don't see anything too special here, really. Assuming
they use torque wrenches for the ring that mounts the plastic
membrane, it looks like any assembler could do it.