I've got a handful of Sony A10s and will bring multiple recorders in to a venue. In my almost 20 years of taping, I have never used internal mics to record. If I am going to tape, I am going to do it right and bring in some proper mics. I see the Sony A10 as an epic 007 recorder with some decent sound to it. The internal mics on the A10 have been bothering me ever since I got it. I've always wanted to chop them off. Well, I decided to do it today. Thanks to a few pics on TS, I got inspired on my day off. Also, thanks to Nicky C for some encouragement and telling me how to start it. I am really happy with the results on the first one. Will do the rest tonight. I have filled the internal mic holes with some clear setting epoxy. It may be just a small amount of space saved, but it's worth it to me.
Steps
1. Take two screws on outside of the unit underneath the grip below the internal mics. It does take some prying and you'll probably make some scratches in the grip to remove it.
2. Take 9 screws that hold the battery in place
3. GENTLY lift up the battery and to the RIGHT. It is ribbon connected and soldered in to the main board. You will see some tape over the mic jack, remove that and remove the two screws underneath. You can then move the plastic tray out of the way and you can now remove the internal mics.
4. I cut the mic cables close to the circuit board to remove the internal mic housing. You can now work on the internal mics without risking damaging the board.
5. I unsoldered at these points, removing the excess cable from the board to make it clean.
6. Back to the internal mic housing. Remove two screws on outside of the internal mic caps. To take the cap off takes a bit of finesse. It should rotate counterclockwise and come off.
7. There is another screw holding the cap onto the housing remove that and the cap comes off. Image 8 is what is left from the mic cap.
9. You are left with the bracket. This bracket can be removed from the plastic and placed back once you've cut the mic brackets. You can go a few options with how you cut it, but after doing a few, I feel this is best just to cut these and fill the holes with epoxy. It's important to cover the holes because the circuit board is exposed at this point when you close it.
10. At this point, I would cut the plastic mic protectors that are on the A10. I just used some wire cutters and it goes through pretty easy. I tried to cut as close to the base as I could and dremeled the rest away.
12. When closing the unit back up, this is the trouble point. I am not sure if this is a slide mechanism or a clip mechanism for closure. I've broken it both times and had to super glue the unit back together to make the bottom part flush. Everything else clicks in.
