Got a question (or two, whatever):
Like breaking in a new car engine, new guitar strings, new tubes in a
guitar amp, is there any reason to break-in a new mic? If so, how would
you go about it? Not talking dynamic mics, but condensor and ribbon
mics? Would the mic being solid-state or tube make a difference?

The reason I ask is that I was going through some old magazines and
cutting out the articles of interest. I do this every three months or so
to make space at home. Ran into a review where the reviewer mentioned
that he plugged the mic he was testing into a preamp, turned on the
phantom power, and let it run like 24 hours or so. To me, this almost
sounds like a burn-in or break-in deal.

Anything to this?
--
de Jack N2MPU FN20
Modeling the NYC and NYNH&H in HO and CP Rail and D&H in N
Proud NRA Life member
addy:

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 20:40:13 -0500, Jack wrote:

Got a question (or two, whatever):
Like breaking in a new car engine, new guitar strings, new tubes in a
guitar amp, is there any reason to break-in a new mic? If so, how would
you go about it? Not talking dynamic mics, but condensor and ribbon
mics? Would the mic being solid-state or tube make a difference?

I like to drop mine onto the floor a few times to give them that
"broken-in" feel.


The reason I ask is that I was going through some old magazines and
cutting out the articles of interest. I do this every three months or so
to make space at home. Ran into a review where the reviewer mentioned
that he plugged the mic he was testing into a preamp, turned on the
phantom power, and let it run like 24 hours or so. To me, this almost
sounds like a burn-in or break-in deal.

It might have been tube gear, some people like to get tubes well
heated and stable before using the gear.

Al

Jack, this may sound as if I'm trying to make a pun, but condenser
microphones don't like condensation (overt moisture) no matter whether
the microphone is powered on at the time or not. If you bring a cold
microphone indoors to where it's warm and humid, or if you leave the
microphone outdoors overnight, you may get condensation which needs to
evaporate before the microphone will work properly or be at its best.

Also, if there's a DC converter in the microphone, that may take a few
seconds to get up to speed but it should stabilize very quickly once
the proper powering is applied.

Other than that, in ordinary solid-state condenser microphones there
really is no such thing as a break-in or warm-up period. Microphones
with tube circuitry are another story, of course.

--best regards

"Jack" wrote in message
. ..

The reason I ask is that I was going through some old magazines and
cutting out the articles of interest. I do this every three months or so
to make space at home. Ran into a review where the reviewer mentioned
that he plugged the mic he was testing into a preamp, turned on the
phantom power, and let it run like 24 hours or so. To me, this almost
sounds like a burn-in or break-in deal.

Anything to this?

That might've been my review. I burn them in for 24 hours for two reasons.
First, I want to see if the thing still works after 24 hours. Don't laugh --
I had one mic kick the bucket when I did that. Second, and perhaps more
important, I want to give any electrolytic caps in the microphone a chance
to completely form their dielectrics.

Peace,
Paul

[Fletcher]

Originally Posted by Jack

Got a question (or two, whatever):
Like breaking in a new car engine, new guitar strings, new tubes in a
guitar amp, is there any reason to break-in a new mic? If so, how would
you go about it? Not talking dynamic mics, but condensor and ribbon
mics? Would the mic being solid-state or tube make a difference?

A "burn in" period for a tube mic isn't a bad idea... it's also a good idea for some of the Chinese mics as they probably haven't been turned on or tested since they were built... but overall, no, you don't need to "break in" microphones.

On some mics, you'll find that they'll "mellow" over time [like I used to work at a studio that had some of the 1.5 micron Stephen Paul diaphragms installed that were so damn bright and zippy on the top end they were basically unuseable for like the first year, year and a half... but after they had a chance to settle in a bit were absolutely drop dead gorgeous].

Best of luck.

In article writes:

Like breaking in a new car engine, new guitar strings, new tubes in a
guitar amp, is there any reason to break-in a new mic?

Not really.

Ran into a review where the reviewer mentioned
that he plugged the mic he was testing into a preamp, turned on the
phantom power, and let it run like 24 hours or so. To me, this almost
sounds like a burn-in or break-in deal.

I suspect that's mostly to be sure that things are stabilized. 24
hours is a bit excessive unless he just wants to check for infant
mortality - that the mic won't die an hour into a test session he's
set up for it.

It's often a good idea to let a tube mic warm up for an hour or so to
let everything in the case come up to an even temperature so there
won't be subtle changes in sound as things stabilize.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 20:40:13 -0500, Jack wrote
(in article ):

Got a question (or two, whatever):
Like breaking in a new car engine, new guitar strings, new tubes in a
guitar amp, is there any reason to break-in a new mic? If so, how would
you go about it? Not talking dynamic mics, but condensor and ribbon
mics? Would the mic being solid-state or tube make a difference?

The reason I ask is that I was going through some old magazines and
cutting out the articles of interest. I do this every three months or so
to make space at home. Ran into a review where the reviewer mentioned
that he plugged the mic he was testing into a preamp, turned on the
phantom power, and let it run like 24 hours or so. To me, this almost
sounds like a burn-in or break-in deal.

Anything to this?


If it's not right in a half hour (usually less) something's wrong.

Regards,

Ty Ford


-- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
stuff are at www.tyford.com

"Jack" wrote in message
. ..
Got a question (or two, whatever):
Like breaking in a new car engine, new guitar strings, new tubes in a
guitar amp, is there any reason to break-in a new mic? If so, how would
you go about it? Not talking dynamic mics, but condensor and ribbon
mics? Would the mic being solid-state or tube make a difference?

The reason I ask is that I was going through some old magazines and
cutting out the articles of interest. I do this every three months or so
to make space at home. Ran into a review where the reviewer mentioned
that he plugged the mic he was testing into a preamp, turned on the
phantom power, and let it run like 24 hours or so. To me, this almost
sounds like a burn-in or break-in deal.

Anything to this?

Did it happen to be a CAD Equitek brand mic? Like a model E100, E200, E300,
E50, etc? They have internal batteries that are supposed to be charged
before you use them. More here :
http://www.americanmusical.com/manua...200_manual.pdf

John L Rice