Topic: Stupid Shure windscreen question

[greenone]

In a thread a while back I thought someone mentioned that there was a "flare" on the inside of the Shure A81WS once you got your mic inside it - I assumed this to mean that they "opened up" inside so the capsule was touching nothing but air. Now that I search further, that idea may have come from this thread: http://www.taperssection.com/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=2568;start=msg19493

Anyway - I got my Shures and used them for the first time this weekend and noticed that there's a coarser, meshy filler inside the finer gray foam that my capsules probably ended up touching. Is this ok? Is there anything to be gained or lost by taking the meshy stuff out? I felt around it with my finger and it feels like it's not attached; it was just dropped in there and then sealed off with the darker foam where the mic enters the screen. Thoughts?

--Dave

[Brian Skalinder]

Leave it in!  I wondered the same thing when I first got mine.

The design is intentional:

--  denser, finer foam on the outside to break the wind
--  coarser, less dense foam on the inside to further reduce wind that gets through the outer layer, but also to create air space around the capsule and therefore reduce high frequency attenuation.

If the whole ws was the denser, finer foam you'd lose some high frequency sound.  If the whole ws was the coarser, less dense foam it wouldn't reduce wind noise as efficiently.  You want both, so leave 'em as they are.  

[greenone]

Nifty. +T for the explanation. I was just worried about the foam actually touching my capsules - the picture in the article that Wiggler linked to in the thread above (holy prepositional phrases, Batman!) made me think that there should be nothing but air around them. Guess that's not a problem.

[Just Taper Mark from NC]

well that means that mydpa UAO896's won't be worth a crap outdoors then because they are the real coarse
foam w/no fine foam on 'em.

[rabhan]

i ran dpa UAO896 for all of bonnaroo and i havent found any wind noise on them. get the shures for WINDY conditions.

[Brian Skalinder]

well that means that mydpa UAO896's won't be worth a crap outdoors then because they are the real coarse
foam w/no fine foam on 'em.

Not true!  The UA0896s will work fine outdoors.  But in VERY WINDY conditions, they won't be quite as good as the Shures.  Most folks are thrilled with the UA0896s.  I just have this nasty habit of attracting storm fronts when I tape outdoors at festivals, and in truly blustery conditions, the Shure's can't be beat.

[greenone]

I thought about the DPAs as well but figured why not drop a few more bucks and make absolutely sure. I knew I'd be headed to Red Rocks in a few weeks (can't WAIT) and a buddy of mine remembers an entire cymbal stand being caught by the wind and flying across the stage there. That's not the kind of breeze I feel like chancing it with. I've had one show ruined by wind and that's quite enough by my count.

Funny and somewhat related story...chatting with an experienced FOH engineer the other day and I mentioned I was headed out to Red Rocks. He grimaced and said "Oh, jeez...I hate that place". It cracks me up that most people go on and on about how beautiful it is and what a great venue it is to see a show in, and then there's this small sliver of the population that knows the venue's notoriety for windy-ass conditions.

--Dave