JK's MKU47 build thread

That's perfect!  Set up all 30 of them to see if they all sound different!

Well, it does cost money...

The only chicks I don't like are bald... on their head.

Hey John yes my analogy came off wrong in my post. I like Tony and pretty much don't disagree with him. I was trying to say, that if you hear something you like about a piece of gear you shouldn't have to prove you hear it, if that makes any practical sense. The food analogy was probably a fail, but basically I know a few guys with the MK47 who love it but also hear and acknowledge some of the very expensive albeit subtle characteristics that make a good vintage 47 so sought after. Sorry if my post came off wrong Tony, 12 hour work day.

And I don't know much about mic building just what little I've gleaned from being old. I didn't build my MK47 Toby Foster did mine for me. At the time he had several vintage U47s on his bench, one which used to be mine. He was impressed with the MK47 and I know he built one for a friend. But at the same time he explained to me a number of the reasons that a good vintage U47 is so hard to approximate, from the tube, to the capsule, circuitry etc, things we have all heard before. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade just pointing out my personal experience that I know is shared by a number of others who have owned both the MK47 and a vintage 47. It's really hard to respond to some of the arguments you hear people make about vintage mics being BS. Usually I pass but this is a pretty safe place to share your honest sentiments. And I think I was one of the first guys to offer to buy your MK47 if you don't like it. I'm sure it will be a great build.

Damn - after re-reading my post, mine was pretty obnoxious itself. Glad we're all straight! Onward and upward.

well, apologies to JK for taking longer than i'd like, i knocked out a good portion of this thing up to now, i'll be hitting the high Z portion tomorrow, the mic is definitely harder to build than the PSU IMO, not "hard" per say, just tedious and i'm a pain in my own ass with the details so? This thing is wired with silver solder/silver coated teflon wire everywhere. The PCB boards for the resistors off the tranny were green, so i painted them black so it'd look cooler, i used shrink tube on everything to relieve stress from the wires that take a pretty hard bending to route, i could see people running into trouble there if you don't use it. Anyway, getting closer 8)

Looks great, Tony!

Is that a rubber ring used for isolating the tubes from vibration?  If so, neat idea.

been following this repforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,36677.0.html for the past couple, our own kidvybes is very honestly taking klaus to task, who in response is acting protective and absolute complete with removing harmless pics that promoted no one, there are no ID markers on max's mic, they could be Neumann for all klaus knows? His first post on this linked thread says exactly 0 substantively. Max actually used NOS Neumann laminates in his first BV8 tranny's(i have one), built off original schemo's. Should be interesting to see where that goes. Nice to see klaus substantiating my early observations.

It won't let me link right to it? Klaus is a forum Na.... never mind lol

Its under the heading "About The Quality of U47 Copy Mics"

No doubt! The hearsay comment killed me considering his first post had no foundation and he was slamming things he's never heard? U don't have to be a rocket to Mars scientist to recognize a guy going to extreme lengths to protect a paradigm that makes him $!!

Tony - well.......Klaus is what he is. I think he's a "love him or hate him" kind of guy. His very terse and dry "germanic" style leave little room for error or personal opinion from anyone but himself. Not exactly the kind of guy I'd call up to go have a beer with... heh

He's a scientist. And one with a lot of credentials.

I've had my run-in's with him. I won't re-hash them. But I can tell you I have friends with mic collections valued in the many multiple 6 figures who use him exclusively and love him. He knows his stuff, but his way of communicating it is so off-putting that I cannot deal with him personally. He may be a nice dude, but I'd never know it. LOL It does not surprise me that he rubs you the wrong way.

And his splitting of sub-atomic "hairs" and calling HUGE attention to them is so ridiculous in real life situations (where I personally live) that it honestly (for me) completely deflates his arguments. I suppose if you only live in a lab and listen to microphones critically in lab rat situations, you might have a different opinion. I'll give him that.

Now, on the flip side of the coin....if I had all the parts laying around, and the money, and the wait time to build a legit "real" U47 out of vintage sourced parts, there is no doubt that he'd be the first guy on the list I'd call. But that will likely never happen, and honestly, with my mk47, I really don't care......

Is John's mic done yet? : )

It's funny how all the attributes mentioned by Klaus over and over, can be achieved by Shannon's capsule manipulation alone. All of us who have spent time experimenting with building mics pretty much agree, the capsule is the most significant factor in the performance of any condenser mic. 

On a side note, i talked to winetree, we're going to do a big ole mic shootout sooner than later(it will include MKU47's and original serial#38 Neumann U47)