Gear / Technical Help > Microphones & Setup
Sennheiser K2U + ME40 supercardioids
goodcooker:
Got a pretty good deal on a pair of these and went ahead and pulled the trigger.
Does anyone know if they will run on phantom power without a battery installed? I plan to use P48 anyway but I'm curious if I need to source a battery or get some cells shrink wrapped together.
EDIT - so I did a little more homework and answered my own question - looks like they will function just fine without a battery installed however many people recommend using a dummy battery spacer to maintain tension on the contact pin that connects the capsule contact. They get saggy or soft over time and cause intermittent contact. So a piece of 5/8 dowel cut to fit instead of a $10 silver oxide battery it is!
dactylus:
Cool! I look forward to hearing these in action. For the pair that just sold on Reverb it appears that they run on battery power OR phantom power. See below.
"Sennheiser ME 40 super cardioid capsules with K2U power modules. These are bright mics, great for distance miking, location sound, documentary film interviews. This pair is in very good condition, a few light scratches, but pretty clean overall. These run on phantom power OR on batteries. The batteries can be expensive, but they are available on B+H website."
https://reverb.com/item/19465016-sennheiser-me-40-k2u-super-cardioid-condenser-microphones-pair-70s-silver
goodcooker:
Those are the pair I bought. He accepted an offer lower than the asking price.
My question is not whether they will run on P48 because they will - it's whether or not a battery or a mock battery contact spacer needs to be installed to get it powered up. A couple of these 70s batt powered mics wouldn't operate without the battery contacts engaged even if p48 was utilized.
I'll plug em up next week and give em a go. Not sure when I'll be able to use them in a more conventional taper method.
John Willett:
Correct - no battery needed, but the dummy battery keeps the tension and pressure on the capsule pin to stop it going crackily if tension was lost. In fact Sennheiser used to make plastic dummy batteries specially for this purpose.
I know the K3U worked like this, bus wasn't sure about the K2U which was before my time - the K2 series was replaced by the K3 in the 1970s I think.
The original batteries were discontinued years ago as they were Mercury batteries - but there were replacements around that did not use Mercury.
satchmo:
I have the me40s, looking for a pair of the me20 caps.
Anyhow, here's a good example of the me40/k3u
https://archive.org/details/duo2005-10-01
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version