I posted this before, but received no response so I thought i would
try one last time:

I am a very big fan of these cheap suckers and have used a pair for
drum overheads and one for side snare.

Last night I found that one of my three has very recently developed
significantly lower output than the other two. All three had been very
similar right out of the box. Much more consistent in terms of sound
than I could have expected for the price.

These mics are all about three years old, never out of my smoke-free
studio, and never subject to any abuse, not a single drop or stick
hit. Always covered when not in use. The one that went "bad" was being
used as an overhead, not on
the snare.

Anyone else with similar experience?

"Darrell Klein" wrote in message
om
I posted this before, but received no response so I thought i would
try one last time:

I am a very big fan of these cheap suckers and have used a pair for
drum overheads and one for side snare.

Last night I found that one of my three has very recently developed
significantly lower output than the other two. All three had been very
similar right out of the box. Much more consistent in terms of sound
than I could have expected for the price.

I'm guessing that they have balanced outputs with blocking capacitors. One
of the caps may have opened up. Stuff like this seems to show up around 3
years out, but YMMV. We'll see it's an isolated failure or a problem that
will be common, when there is a larger population of 603's that are old
enough.

I suspect that the real feeding frenzy for MXL 603s started in July 2002
with this post:

http://www.google.com/groups?selm=33...FB7.7665 9F52
76520FCA%40lp.airnews.net

So, if a clock is ticking, it's got about 20 months to go.

In article writes:

Last night I found that one of my three has very recently developed
significantly lower output than the other two. All three had been very
similar right out of the box. Much more consistent in terms of sound
than I could have expected for the price.

These mics are all about three years old, never out of my smoke-free
studio, and never subject to any abuse, not a single drop or stick
hit. Always covered when not in use. The one that went "bad" was being
used as an overhead, not on
the snare.

Anyone else with similar experience?

Probably not, but stuff breaks now and then. There really isn't a time
bomb in there, but random failures of electronic components happen.
Call MXL and tell them your tale of woe. They'll probably invite you
to send it back and either will fix it for free, fix it for cheap, or
tell you that the warranty period is over and at the price you paid,
you should just write it off and be glad the others are still working.
Chances are they'll continue working for years and years.


--
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

Try removing the capsule and push on the spring loaded post a few
times to see if it's springing back into place. I had this problem
once it turned out the post was just hanging up and not making a good
connection to the capsule.
-Tim


"Arny Krueger" wrote in message ...
"Darrell Klein" wrote in message
om
I posted this before, but received no response so I thought i would
try one last time:

I am a very big fan of these cheap suckers and have used a pair for
drum overheads and one for side snare.

Last night I found that one of my three has very recently developed
significantly lower output than the other two. All three had been very
similar right out of the box. Much more consistent in terms of sound
than I could have expected for the price.

Try removing the capsule and pushing the spring loaded post a few
times. I had the same problem once and it turned out that the post was
hanging up and not exerting enough force on the capsule. It's not a
very high quality mechanism, but considering the price of the mic, I
guess it's as good as it gets.
-Tim

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message ...
"Darrell Klein" wrote in message
om
I posted this before, but received no response so I thought i would
try one last time:

I am a very big fan of these cheap suckers and have used a pair for
drum overheads and one for side snare.

Last night I found that one of my three has very recently developed
significantly lower output than the other two. All three had been very
similar right out of the box. Much more consistent in terms of sound
than I could have expected for the price.

I'm guessing that they have balanced outputs with blocking capacitors. One
of the caps may have opened up. Stuff like this seems to show up around 3
years out, but YMMV. We'll see it's an isolated failure or a problem that
will be common, when there is a larger population of 603's that are old
enough.

I suspect that the real feeding frenzy for MXL 603s started in July 2002
with this post:

http://www.google.com/groups?selm=33...FB7.7665 9F52
76520FCA%40lp.airnews.net

So, if a clock is ticking, it's got about 20 months to go.

What I'll probably do is just listen to the quality of the sound and
if it's okay, use it on the snare. I may get away with not needing a
pad on it!
As we all know, at that price point, I am not unhappy with getting
*only* three years' use out of it even if it's dead. I was just
curious if this was a common event.

"Darrell Klein" wrote in message
om...
What I'll probably do is just listen to the quality of the sound and
if it's okay, use it on the snare. I may get away with not needing a
pad on it!
As we all know, at that price point, I am not unhappy with getting
*only* three years' use out of it even if it's dead. I was just
curious if this was a common event.

Missed the earlier stuff, but have you done the standard stuff like drying
it out on a lampshade for a day or so ? Moisture + electrostatics = not
good friends.

geoff

Thanks Geoff, I just read your reply. I have three of these and one
developed significantly lower output. I'll give your suggestion a try.
Humidity here (Midwest U.S. in winter) is pretty low. We have
forced-air heat and the humidity is set at 35% in winter. But, I'll
try it and see.

"Geoff Wood" -nospam wrote in message ...
"Darrell Klein" wrote in message
om...
What I'll probably do is just listen to the quality of the sound and
if it's okay, use it on the snare. I may get away with not needing a
pad on it!
As we all know, at that price point, I am not unhappy with getting
*only* three years' use out of it even if it's dead. I was just
curious if this was a common event.

Missed the earlier stuff, but have you done the standard stuff like drying
it out on a lampshade for a day or so ? Moisture + electrostatics = not
good friends.

geoff

"Darrell Klein" wrote in message
om...
Thanks Geoff, I just read your reply. I have three of these and one
developed significantly lower output. I'll give your suggestion a try.
Humidity here (Midwest U.S. in winter) is pretty low. We have
forced-air heat and the humidity is set at 35% in winter. But, I'll
try it and see.


Other than immediately after vocal use, I'd say that there would be no way
you have a humidity problem. I was thinking more about places that are
normally 80% plus ...


geoff