As a director of a student choral ensemble that performs in a terrible room most of the time, I have been looking for a good setup to PA my choir for a while. I recently picked up a very cheap set of AT853s on eBay, and put together a portable and low-visual-profile stand setup, mostly using pieces I had already. I tried it in rehearsal last week, and it worked great. Concert run is tomorrow.
I already use the Impact stand with 4 sections of the carbon fiber tubes (plus a top T-section) as my DPA 4061 setup, and realized that the AT853 wire hangers fit perfectly into these exact tubes. From there it was just finding a way to hold and position them.
This would probably make a good spaced omni recording setup as well if you have the appropriate caps for your 853s. As I am doing choir PA, I am using cards.
Parts list:
Impact Back Light StandManfrotto Super Clamp with Short Stud (2)
3/8" / 10 mm steel & rubber cable clamp (2)
1/4"-20 nut with nylon insert (2)
Sky Shark .380 in carbon fiber tube (4, 2 per side)
2.5 in .350 carbon ferrule (2) - to join the tubes
Auray WLF-012 windscreen (2)
AT853 mics (obviously)
Wire hangers for 835s, which fit perfectly inside the .380 tubes (2)
The 1/4" nuts thread onto the appropriate side of the short stud. Since the nuts are held in place by the side of the rubber cable clamp, you turn the stud to tighten everything (which is a hex stud, fortunately). I plan to add some velcro ties around the bottom of the carbon tubes and the top of the stand setup to make sure that nothing droops.