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Post by ragan on Feb 17, 2017 14:59:56 GMT -6
Also, from my sources, Peluso is using overseas capsules now, from a very reputable maker.
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Post by Vincent R. on Feb 17, 2017 15:25:05 GMT -6
jcoutu1 I've never used the Stellar mics. From what I've read they're really good, but not quite the same catagory as the Peluso or AA stuff, but that's just from what I've read. Maybe aamicrophones can let us know more details. Pretty sure the Stellar mics are stock Chinese mics, which are upgraded here in the US. The AA mics are parts ordered per spec from China, with quality control and assembly done in Canada. Peluso mics are similar to AA in that they have parts ordered per spec from China, but quality control and assembly in the US. However, John Peluso skins the capsules here in the US as well. So the capsules are also different. I am honestly not sure.
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Post by Vincent R. on Feb 17, 2017 15:25:31 GMT -6
Also, from my sources, Peluso is using overseas capsules now, from a very reputable maker. Interesting.
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Post by ChaseUTB on Feb 18, 2017 3:04:11 GMT -6
ragan anything else you can divulge for future customers to make the best purchase decision?
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Post by ragan on Feb 18, 2017 6:09:47 GMT -6
ragan anything else you can divulge for future customers to make the best purchase decision? Nah, I'm not meaning to imply anything juicy. My only advice is get the mics you like the sound of
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Post by aamicrophones on Feb 19, 2017 16:13:42 GMT -6
The entire SDC line seems to have gone away, there are still some pages up if you know where to look, but they don't seem to be obvious. Hello, our CM1084 SDC in on the FET microphone page. advancedaudio.ca/collections/fet-microphones/products/cm1084We also have the CM28 tube SDC microphones back in stock again and they will go back up on the web-site next week. We also have re-instigated the CM54 but it now has the same class "A" transformer coupled circuit as our CM1084 and comes with a condenser vocal head and will sell for $195. It will also fit our Cardiod, super cardiod, OMNI 22mm capsules and they are $50 each. The vocal head has a supercardiod capsule, built in foam pop filter and metal grill. This vocals (super-cardiod) head will also fit the CM1084 and will be $95 for the vocal head only. Here is a shot of our friend Maria Bobone in Portugal using the CM54 vocal microphone on a live session. The sound guy preferred it to the Neumann KMS105. I will see if Maria can send us an audio file of this session. Cheers, Dave aamicrophones.com
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Post by Guitar on Feb 19, 2017 16:34:31 GMT -6
I recognize that acoustic chamber and hex screw from my work on MXL and CAD microphones. Anyway those photos are lovely!
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Post by aamicrophones on Feb 19, 2017 17:14:36 GMT -6
So the capsules are also different. I am honestly not sure. Hi Guys, The Stellar bodies and capsules come from the same very reputatable maker in Shanghai that we use. Peter at Stellar actually introduced me to Shanghai Electronics. The Stellar CM-6 uses the same capsule as our CM47 and CM87 which is similar to the Peluso CEK367 capsule. However, the Stellar CM-6 uses a EF86 tube circuit without negative feedback which is how Neumann got it to work "successfully" in the U67. The U67 uses 15db of negative feedback resulting a lower plate impedance, We prefer in our listening tests and 45 years of tube circuit experience the optimized CCDA circuit which has a better transient response, low frequency response and better headroom. The CCDA circuit has a output impedance 10 times lower than a U67 microphone which means the output transformer is dampened much more quickly resulting in a faster transient response and less distortion in the low frequencies. In our new CM48T we use a similar circuit to the CM-6 but we use a GE/JAN 5654W tube which we find has almost identical specs to the original VF14m used in the original U47. The 5654w us designed to run on a lower plate voltage like more like the original VF14m tube. We have visited Shanghai Electronics on two occasions and worked with them now for just over 10 years. We are in communication with the several times a month regarding quality control, circuit upgrades and component upgrades. Originally we were getting about a 25% failure rate of some of the capsule but in in the 10 years of working with them we have reduced this to less than 10%. They are the only Company we know in China that skin with 6 micron mylar. They are the only Chinese Company that is will to work with us on a one to one basis and actually answer e-mails that has been run past the CEO and Chief engineer Mr Zhu. The AK67 capsule in our CM87 and CM47 has less than a 2% failure rate in our experience. We believe this to be equal to or better that the failure rate of Neumann K67/K87 capsules. The capsule we replace the most in repairs (not upgrades) are in Neumann U87 microphones. This might be because there are more U87's out there than any other microphone? However, we have seen dozen's of AK67/87 capsule fail because damp breath from close vocals has worn off the gold sputtering from the mylar diaphragm. Our capsules use the exact same metalwork as the Peluso capsules. Our AK47 capsule is an exact reprodution of a K47 capsule as we sent them a Neumann K47 for reference. You can see the hole pattern and diaphragm size of an original K47 and the AK47 are the same. The AK47 has an OD of 1.8mm less. This is because the AK47 used a metal retaining ring as opposed to the nylon on the K47, PK48 and RK47 capsule. We prefer the metal retaining ring as we have had problems with warped nylon rings from China causing the mylar diaphragm material to wrinkle. I have also included the response of our AK67 (Peluso CEK367) and our AK47 capsule. Shanghai electronics has two closet size anechoic chambers one were they test each of our capsules to match our benchmark response curve and one at the end of the production line that every microphone is run through before shipping to us. We then extensively test each microphone when it arrives here in our shop. The capsule are physically inspected here, the capacitance of the capsule is confirmed and we run a stress test on each capsule plus a final listening test. Our CM47VE microphones come to us as CM47 microphones and we install the AK47 capules here in our shop as well as make a capacitor change and change the sleeve to CM47ve. Our CM49 and CM251 microphones are also a custom build here in our shop. Our production runs in Shanghai use our circuit boards with components that we have spec'd. Cheers, Dave Thomas aamicrophones.com Attachments:
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Post by Vincent R. on Feb 19, 2017 17:59:17 GMT -6
Thanks aamicrophones for all the info and clarification. Looking forward to receiving my CM49 on Friday.
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Post by wiz on Feb 19, 2017 18:05:10 GMT -6
You are to be commended on your sharing of information about your products... thats refreshing.
I wish you great success
cheers
Wiz
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Post by Vincent R. on Feb 19, 2017 18:40:16 GMT -6
The entire SDC line seems to have gone away, there are still some pages up if you know where to look, but they don't seem to be obvious. Hello, our CM1084 SDC in on the FET microphone page. advancedaudio.ca/collections/fet-microphones/products/cm1084We also have the CM28 tube SDC microphones back in stock again and they will go back up on the web-site next week. We also have re-instigated the CM54 but it now has the same class "A" transformer coupled circuit as our CM1084 and comes with a condenser vocal head and will sell for $195. It will also fit our Cardiod, super cardiod, OMNI 22mm capsules and they are $50 each. The vocal head has a supercardiod capsule, built in foam pop filter and metal grill. This vocals (super-cardiod) head will also fit the CM1084 and will be $95 for the vocal head only. Here is a shot of our friend Maria Bobone in Portugal using the CM54 vocal microphone on a live session. The sound guy preferred it to the Neumann KMS105. I will see if Maria can send us an audio file of this session. Cheers, Dave aamicrophones.com Dave, What is the difference between the CM54 and the CM1084? Is the CM54 an FET mic or a tube mic? I believe the CM28 is back on the site already. I was looking at it the other day when I ordered the CM49.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 14,928
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Post by ericn on Feb 19, 2017 19:27:16 GMT -6
It's great to see a manufacturer in this price range that is honest and open about the source of their capsules. The fact that Dave is willing to answer questions and work with the customer to end up with a customer who is happy at this price point is rare.
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Post by aamicrophones on Feb 19, 2017 20:24:32 GMT -6
Hello, our CM1084 SDC in on the FET microphone page. advancedaudio.ca/collections/fet-microphones/products/cm1084We also have the CM28 tube SDC microphones back in stock again and they will go back up on the web-site next week. We also have re-instigated the CM54 but it now has the same class "A" transformer coupled circuit as our CM1084 and comes with a condenser vocal head and will sell for $195. It will also fit our Cardiod, super cardiod, OMNI 22mm capsules and they are $50 each. The vocal head has a supercardiod capsule, built in foam pop filter and metal grill. This vocals (super-cardiod) head will also fit the CM1084 and will be $95 for the vocal head only. Here is a shot of our friend Maria Bobone in Portugal using the CM54 vocal microphone on a live session. The sound guy preferred it to the Neumann KMS105. I will see if Maria can send us an audio file of this session. Cheers, Dave aamicrophones.com Dave, What is the difference between the CM54 and the CM1084? Is the CM54 an FET mic or a tube mic? I believe the CM28 is back on the site already. I was looking at it the other day when I ordered the CM49. Hi Guys, the original CM54 was a SDC FET microphone with a transformerless class A/B discrete Shoep circuit. About 5 years ago I was able to get Shanghai to build original C414/C451 like circuit boards I designed to fit inside the SDC body. This circuit is a 2 stage class "A" emitter/follower which is transformer coupled. We used the same body and capsule as the CM54 but changed the internal circuit board to our design and re-named it a CM1084 since its very close to the KM84 in response. The circuit has 14db more headroom than the KM84 circuit. Our super-cardiod capsule seems to match the response of the KM84. However, our Cardiod capsule is roughly 2db hotter at 8khz which is quite nice on single instruments but if you stack up tracks then the result will be much brighter. Our friends at Angel Sudios in London like the CM1084 on single instruments but still use their aging KM84's over pairs of instruments in the string section. Angel has a prototype of a new Cardiod capsule design that they are testing against a KM84. The QC of SDC capsules is very critical and we have found more inconsistencies between SDC capsules than the LDC type. The C451 grill on the cardiod capsule is partly the reason for the extra rise at 8khz but with this sturdier nose, plus the larger headroom circuit and -10/-20db pads allows it to be used in close on snare and toms plus its more rugged in live situations. Last year I designed the vocal microphone head grill around our super-cardiod SDC capsule for a client in Portugal who had an original CM54. It will also fit our CM1084 body. This head grill was so successful in Beta testing that we have put it into production and we looked to produce a hand held vocal SDC. When we went to order bodies we discovered that we had 80 bodies left in stock in Shanghai labelled CM54. So, we are going to re-introduce the CM54 as a hand held vocal microphone with the same transformer coupled class "A" circuit as the CM1084 and it will come with the vocal head grill. it will be possible to buy OMNI and Cardiod capsules to fit this microphone as well. So, now everything is compatible between the NEW CM54 Vocal SDC and the CM1084. We will have the first 10 of these CM54 microphones shipped in by air and we should have them on hand by the middle of March. We are also receiving some head grills only. Here is the "NEW" CM54 vocal microphone ready to go to the paint shop to have the engraving filled. Cheers, Dave aamicrophones.com
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 21, 2017 10:07:35 GMT -6
Hey Dave - thanks for being here! Question. Why are there not darker options available in both sdc and ldc? The number one complaint I hear is that more affordable mics are too brite, yet I can't think of a single one that some might consider darker. For my personal taste, I would much rather put that top in with my own eq than try to dig it out.
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Post by ragan on Feb 21, 2017 10:37:04 GMT -6
Hey Dave - thanks for being here! Question. Why are there not darker options available in both sdc and ldc? The number one complaint I hear is that more affordable mics are too brite, yet I can't think of a single one that some might consider darker. For my personal taste, I would much rather put that top in with my own eq than try to dig it out. Totally agree. KEL offered a couple darker LDCs (HM-2D being one) and 3U offers several. But mostly it's bright city.
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Post by Vincent R. on Feb 21, 2017 14:45:02 GMT -6
Hey Dave - thanks for being here! Question. Why are there not darker options available in both sdc and ldc? The number one complaint I hear is that more affordable mics are too brite, yet I can't think of a single one that some might consider darker. For my personal taste, I would much rather put that top in with my own eq than try to dig it out. I'm curious what you mean by dark offerings. Like something darker than a U47/48 or M49 style mic? I don't have his U47/48 style option, and my M49 style mic will be here on Friday, so I'll definitely post my thoughts when I get it. :-D The custom U67 style mic he made me is nice and warm as a U67 should be. Not bright in the vintage mode. Maybe not quite the same as my MK U67, but definitely in the ball park. In the stock mode it is a bright mic though.
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Post by reddirt on Feb 21, 2017 17:03:47 GMT -6
Hi Vincent, thanks for all your efforts; your shoot outs are really valid. Be keen to hear the AA M49 on your voice. FWIW, I thought the the AA 67 you posted was to it's credit, able to take that heat in the often difficult upper mid lower treble range but suffered a little in the upper bass/ lower mid in that it sounded a little "woolly" as opposed to a more expensive sounding Neumann upper bass/ lower mid if you know what I mean - sounds like a valve artifact sometimes can.
Keep 'em comin'.
Cheers, Ross
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Post by Vincent R. on Feb 22, 2017 18:34:06 GMT -6
Hi Vincent, thanks for all your efforts; your shoot outs are really valid. Be keen to hear the AA M49 on your voice. FWIW, I thought the the AA 67 you posted was to it's credit, able to take that heat in the often difficult upper mid lower treble range but suffered a little in the upper bass/ lower mid in that it sounded a little "woolly" as opposed to a more expensive sounding Neumann upper bass/ lower mid if you know what I mean - sounds like a valve artifact sometimes can. Keep 'em comin'. Cheers, Ross Hey Ross, Thanks. I find these videos fun. I have some more stuff planned. Just getting over some health things. On the mend and planning my next few videos. I'm really excited for the CM49. I really want to do a shoot out of my tribute mics and my Slate VMS. I think that would be revealing and fun. I also want to do a shoot out of all popular operatic tenor mics. I even have an old Altec 639a which my idol Mario Lanza used to use. I really enjoy the AA CM67 for what it is, a brighter mic based on a modified U67. I really like it on female voices. They also gave me a custom vintage mode which I prefer on my voice. It wasn't used for this video. I kind of like tube artifacts in my recordings, but I totally hear what you're saying. It is a preference thing. Thanks again. I'll let everyone know when I release a new video.
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Post by reddirt on Feb 22, 2017 18:58:54 GMT -6
Thanks for your reply Vincent . Just to be clear, I wasn't meaning tubes per se have a woolly artifact in their sound, it was that some tube gear can have it and thus miss that overall final ultra-pro vibe. It's obsessing about small things in otherwise great gear but I have a pre here that I won't name that I wonder whether a change to Mullards or Teles would raise it to that hoped for level. E.G. I put a pricey Mullard in a Rode NTK which improved it markedly; didn't fix the cap but it was less strident and smoother.
Like to hear the CM 49 though when you get it.
Cheers, Ross
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Post by Vincent R. on Feb 24, 2017 19:30:10 GMT -6
First test with the CM49 reveal a beautifully rich sound with a natural top end. I'll do a full review once I have a little time to use it more thoroughly.
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Post by mitchkricun on Feb 25, 2017 8:50:04 GMT -6
Hey Dave - thanks for being here! Question. Why are there not darker options available in both sdc and ldc? The number one complaint I hear is that more affordable mics are too brite, yet I can't think of a single one that some might consider darker. For my personal taste, I would much rather put that top in with my own eq than try to dig it out. I'm curious what you mean by dark offerings. Like something darker than a U47/48 or M49 style mic? I don't have his U47/48 style option, and my M49 style mic will be here on Friday, so I'll definitely post my thoughts when I get it. :-D The custom U67 style mic he made me is nice and warm as a U67 should be. Not bright in the vintage mode. Maybe not quite the same as my MK U67, but definitely in the ball park. In the stock mode it is a bright mic though. When I got my Wunder CM7GT, the M7 capsule I got had a 92pF capacitance which was quite sibilant. I asked them to swap it out with a "darker" capsule and they sent it back with a capsule at 87pF. Better, but still too bright. Sent it back again and had it replaced with a capsule made in Germany by Siegfried Thiersch which is around 81pF. This one is very well balanced; warmth, natural "sss" and presence. I have an AA CM47 Fet/CE and it works really well in applications you'd use a Nuemann Fet 47, and it costs around $400! I told a friend about the company and he bought their U87 offering. I don't really like it on his voice based on the recordings he's played for me, but that could have more to do with his moderate level pre amp and/or his engineering skill. Also, not everyone's voice sounds great on an 87 imo. Hope this helps.
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Post by stratboy on Feb 25, 2017 10:03:17 GMT -6
I'm curious what you mean by dark offerings. Like something darker than a U47/48 or M49 style mic? I don't have his U47/48 style option, and my M49 style mic will be here on Friday, so I'll definitely post my thoughts when I get it. :-D The custom U67 style mic he made me is nice and warm as a U67 should be. Not bright in the vintage mode. Maybe not quite the same as my MK U67, but definitely in the ball park. In the stock mode it is a bright mic though. When I got my Wunder CM7GT, the M7 capsule I got had a 92pF capacitance which was quite sibilant. I asked them to swap it out with a "darker" capsule and they sent it back with a capsule at 87pF. Better, but still too bright. Sent it back again and had it replaced with a capsule made in Germany by Siegfried Thiersch which is around 81pF. This one is very well balanced; warmth, natural "sss" and presence. I have an AA CM47 Fet/CE and it works really well in applications you'd use a Nuemann Fet 47, and it costs around $400! I told a friend about the company and he bought their U87 offering. I don't really like it on his voice based on the recordings he's played for me, but that could have more to do with his moderate level pre amp and/or his engineering skill. Also, not everyone's voice sounds great on an 87 imo. Hope this helps. How did you measure the capsule capacitance?
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Post by mitchkricun on Feb 25, 2017 10:30:33 GMT -6
With a capacitance measurer of course! Just kidding. I just told Mike at Wunder that it was a little bright for me and he suggested I try a capsule with a lower capacitance. He told me what the capacitance of each capsule was.
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Post by stratboy on Feb 25, 2017 11:22:01 GMT -6
You mean a Capacitator? 😀
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Post by ChaseUTB on Feb 25, 2017 14:35:29 GMT -6
topshelfmg just got an AA251 interested to hear more from him regarding the mic. I follow his Instagram and he posted about it the other day. Hand built and hand tweaked from aamicrophones maybe you can shed more light on this model 😀
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