Topic: Opinions/ Problems with Ebay DPA 4061?

[paulbaptiste]

Wanted to hear any feedback with any TS'ers that have purchased these off of ebay.  Read through a whole bunch of old threads warning about the potential danger in buying these used mics, but didn't really see that many coments from those who had purchased them. 
Reason I'm asking is I have a little money to spend and don't exactly know what direction to go in to improve my ghetto rig, i.e. new mics^, a pre, save up for a better recorder ect.  thought i'd start to narrow it down.

and any sugestions on what would be a good upgrade, staying stealth, from my 853's?

[newplanet7]

If you don't want to get burned,
just buy from the yardsale here.

I haven't heard of anyone getting burned on dpa's in particular on ebay.
More CF cards and such.
But for piece of mind, personally I would just buy here.
I had no trouble with the five or so members I've dealt with here.
-todd

[willndmb]

there is one seller from ebay that a good number of people here have got them from and they have had no problems
check the 1st page of the ebay forum, the seller had a pair recently linked here so you can see the name

[fmaderjr]

To my knowledge, nobody has reported a bad experience with this seller, who has a pair on sale now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/DPA-4061-Tan-lavaliere-microphone-pair-for-MD_W0QQitemZ280194516502QQihZ018QQcategoryZ29950QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

She says they are professionally tested (which eliminates a great deal of the risk) and reports are that she even tries to match them fairly well (mine were).

Buying them from her is much cheaper than tapers will sell them for in the yard sale. Sometimes a good bit under $300.

I got a great pair from her.

[DSatz]

paulbaptiste, I know nothing at all about the seller or about the DPA microphone that you're interested in, but would simply like to say that as an eBayer with 755 rated transactions and a 100.0% feedback record, I'm a little like the owner of a shiny new car who comes to an intersection and sees someone driving a beat-up old wreck coming around the corner. I'm going to give that person the right of way, because they have less to lose than I do if we should collide.

In other words, though I'm not proud of the fact, I never leave negative or even neutral feedback, except in the few clear-cut cases of outright fraud which I have reported to eBay as such (an action which gives me protection against retaliatory negative feedback from the seller). If someone takes a long time to ship, or if in my opinion the item isn't as described but it's a "judgment call" type of situation, I simply don't leave any feedback for them at all.

As a result I think it's best when someone you trust can vouch for a seller, particularly with relatively fragile, expensive items. But where microphones and capsules are concerned, no matter how highly touted the seller is, I always send the items to the manufacturer for checkout before using them in a live recording. Quite often, even an honest seller will simply not know what problems may be lurking inside a capsule or microphone.

I've bought numerous microphones and capsules on eBay which turned out to have problems that needed repair; in a few cases I actually know the seller well enough to feel sure that they had no intent to deceive--they simply didn't realize that (for example) one capsule, which they had bought second-hand themselves, had internal water damage and (for example) another one had insulation that was about to fail. It takes expert disassembly and testing of a capsule before you can possibly know those things--and while a fair number of people know how to take capsules apart, only a much smaller number are qualified to put them back together.

--best regards

[paulbaptiste]

THanks for your input.  I would be much more comfortable buying used gear off the board here than ebay, the cheaper price is a temptation that hard to ignore. 

Is there a another option beisdes DPA's for stealth mics that would be a noticeable improvement over what i run now, as opposed to a lateral move,

[bugg100]

For the positive transaction side of the equation....

http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,97384.0.html

I got 2 singles that I terminated myself for $255 shipped.  YMMV

Joe

[willndmb]

To my knowledge, nobody has reported a bad experience with this seller, who has a pair on sale now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/DPA-4061-Tan-lavaliere-microphone-pair-for-MD_W0QQitemZ280194516502QQihZ018QQcategoryZ29950QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

She says they are professionally tested (which eliminates a great deal of the risk) and reports are that she even tries to match them fairly well (mine were).

Buying them from her is much cheaper than tapers will sell them for in the yard sale. Sometimes a good bit under $300.

I got a great pair from her.

thats who i was talking about as well
looking at her feedback she did get negative from a member here - jerryfreak
so you might want to ask about that
still most seem to be happy with theirs

[paulbaptiste]

I saw that too when going through the feeback, maybe jerryfreak will chime in

[Belexes]

Is there a another option beisdes DPA's for stealth mics that would be a noticeable improvement over what i run now, as opposed to a lateral move,

Sonic Studios mics may be a step up although some may see them as lateral.

http://www.sonicstudios.com/

You can usually find a set in the yard for hundreds less than new.

[ilduclo]

I got a set about 3 years ago, broadway sellers, they're running well, and, although I didn't get quite as good a deal (400 for a pretty closely matched pair) I am still very satisfied!

[illconditioned]

Sennheiser MKE2.  These sound really full, and IMO are a little easier on the ears then the DPA406x.  (Not biased, I've got both mics...).

 Richard

[jerryfreak]

ok, heres my experience, i can elaborate later, but to summarize, i inquired about a return policy, she said, if youre not happy, send em back.

i knew i was taking a chance, and was hoping to get them test them, and keep them if they were ok.

when i received them, i realized the lemo connectors were crimped/molded, and i'd need to cut them to test them. I didn't think it was fair to  cut them and possibly return them, so i decided i would just return as per her policy.

well guess what, as soon as i tried to return them according to her policy, she insisted, 'they are in perfect order, you have no reason to return them, no deal'. sh would provide no details on how they were 'professionally tested'

so after a few back and forth emails, i told her i would send them to dpa to be tested, and decide from there. Well guess what, they were two perfectly matched pairs, , in DPA spec. so i kept them both, and then she left me negative feedback:'Terrible buyer, don’t do business with this one.", which was a stretch to say the least. so i left her feedback, "Very difficult to deal with! Wouldnt honor agreed upon return policy. I'd avoid!", which was 100% honest. The mics were great, the seller sucked.

in short, i got lucky, but they were def. a broadway pair, so it could have gone either way. just expect that you are buying them as-is, and dont expect the seller to honor any sort of return policy. I'd expect to send them to DPA (they charged me $50, i begged for the 'poor hobby taper discount') if you are serious about them