On 9/11/2020 7:28 AM, geoff wrote:
What liquid best to use on a (true) condenser mic capsule to clean -
grime and dust, all well-stuck on ? Iso, distilled water, borax !?
Distilled water or alcohol, on a soft brush. It's been suggested that
steam be used to deposit a proper amount of water on the brush. DO NOT
USE STEAM TO CLEAN THE DIAPHRAGM!
And for that matter, same question for electret ?
Same answer.
Is the gold evaporation on the outside or inside, so what level of
delicacy - extreme, or extremely extreme ?
It's on the outer surface of the diaphragm, so be extremely cautious
with it.
Capsule is CK12Â* - no, not a brass-ring one, sadly. Also some CK1 etc.
Best advice is not to try it on a high quality microphone. Better
practice on something cheap first. Best is to send the mic back to the
manufacturer or a trusted repair person who has enough experience to not
screw it up.
David Josephson (Josephson Microphones) used to have an article on his
web site about cleaning a mic diaphragm that he distilled from an
on-line discussion in rec.audio.pro. Maybe some of that is still in an
archive if you want to try to find it.
David decided that too many people were ruining too-good microphones by
attempting to clean the diaphragm and ultimately removed the article
from his web page, replacing it with this:
More than twenty years ago, we posted some comments to rec.audio.pro about
cleaning condenser microphone diaphragms. I have decided to retire the local
copy of that article, because it seems to inspire too many to attempt things
that are unwise.
One thing left out of the original article is this: cleaning should only be
done if the microphone fails to work otherwise. The difference caused by a
little extra weight may be audible, but not huge. Got that? No cleaning unless
it *doesn't work.* And in no case should you use any source of heat near the
microphone. Someone thought that what we wrote suggested putting steam on the
microphone diaphragm. !!?! ... the steam is to put a slight amount of pure
water on your cleaning brush, not the diaphragm! No heat anywhere near
diaphragm, OK?
With all due respect to others in the field, if the conductive layer on
the diaphragm is so fragile that gentle cleaning with distilled water, alcohol
and cotton or a slightly damp fine brush damages it, you have no business
cleaning it. That said, losing a small amount of metallization has little or
no effect -- the diaphragm will still behave as it did before, the
active area is just reduced a little. A real hazard, however, is that the
capsule will become contaminated internally with whatever the cleaning medium
carries with it, and will forever be noisy. This is particularly a problem with
older PVC diaphragms that have cracks. Unless you have a way to test for
ionic contamination of the surface and resulting leakage resistance of the
capsule, don't try it.
If any Josephson microphone appears to need cleaning, please send it back to
the factory in California. The cost is minimal and you can be sure of original
performance when it's done.
--
For a good time, call
http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com