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Gear / Technical Help => Microphones & Setup => Topic started by: tapernateva on March 03, 2011, 04:56:52 PM

Title: WTD km100 issue
Post by: tapernateva on March 03, 2011, 04:56:52 PM
So i bought a set of km150s off of walt they are a stereo pair and had been unused when i got them i have used them 3 times now and it seems as if one mike is not as sound electronically it passes a signal but itnis not as responsive as the other km100 I tried a second set of bodies with the caps and the caps are matched fine and my older bodies work with the caps both active and not the problem seems to be one body and only the body what should i do since i purchased them used I do not really want money back from walt i just wantbthe stereo set of mikes to work like a set.
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: TNJazz on March 03, 2011, 05:13:13 PM
Did you try swapping the caps?

My old pair of KM140s (bought new WAY back when in the 90's) had this issue where one mic/cap combo worked normally and the other didn't.  I tried everything I could think of to fix it and nothing worked except making sure one particular cap went on one particular body.  As long as I did I never had any issues out of them.  Perhaps it's something similar?
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: tapernateva on March 03, 2011, 05:18:07 PM
No I tried all combos it is definately just one body both caps act the same on it and both caps act fine on different bodies so I am at a loss
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: page on March 03, 2011, 05:27:10 PM
No I tried all combos it is definately just one body both caps act the same on it and both caps act fine on different bodies so I am at a loss

are you going cap > cable > body or cap > body?

Just curious if one of the cables is miswired. Also, does it affect the frequency response (set it up on axis in front of your stereo and play it back mono style) or is it just out of phase? I'm thinking of a set of mics that got passed around here that one of them is out of phase and it's wired that way by accident.

Sample?
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: tapernateva on March 03, 2011, 05:30:12 PM
I have tried all combos differnt caps diffent bodies and all set ups it is clearly one body but it still picks up sound and it sounds nice it just is not as responsive as it should be
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: page on March 03, 2011, 11:50:41 PM
I have tried all combos differnt caps diffent bodies and all set ups it is clearly one body but it still picks up sound and it sounds nice it just is not as responsive as it should be

responsive as in needs more gain or responsive as in it's missing high end/low end/midrange/etc?

Just curious, at the end of the day you'll probably have to send it in to be worked on, I'm just curious if it's a polarity issue.
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: OFOTD on March 04, 2011, 12:05:07 AM
Are the contacts clean on the body.  I had a similar issue with one of my KM100 bodies and a good q-tip and alcohol cleaning did the trick.
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: F.O.Bean on March 04, 2011, 01:17:18 AM
Are the contacts clean on the body.  I had a similar issue with one of my KM100 bodies and a good q-tip and alcohol cleaning did the trick.

Yeah, I tend to do that once a year. Not so much w/ the MBHO's as much as I did w/ my old 480's, because w/ my MBHO's, the cables always stay plugged in
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: John Willett on March 04, 2011, 06:45:13 AM
So i bought a set of km150s off of walt they are a stereo pair and had been unused when i got them i have used them 3 times now and it seems as if one mike is not as sound electronically it passes a signal but itnis not as responsive as the other km100 I tried a second set of bodies with the caps and the caps are matched fine and my older bodies work with the caps both active and not the problem seems to be one body and only the body what should i do since i purchased them used I do not really want money back from walt i just wantbthe stereo set of mikes to work like a set.

I would send it to Neumann (or your local Neumann Agent) to be checked - it may be better to send the set as it's a pair.
Title: Re: WTD km100 issue
Post by: 0vu on March 04, 2011, 01:12:39 PM
Are the contacts clean on the body.  I had a similar issue with one of my KM100 bodies and a good q-tip and alcohol cleaning did the trick.

Yeah, I tend to do that once a year. Not so much w/ the MBHO's as much as I did w/ my old 480's, because w/ my MBHO's, the cables always stay plugged in

Apart from the contacts on the KM100 and capsule being clean, are the springy parts of the contacts on the KM100 still secure and firmly springy? I had a couple of KM100s fail/go intermittent when one gradually lost its 'boing' and another cracked at one end so it failed to make a secure contact. Both were on bodies with 2 digit serial numbers which had done a lot of work so I put it down to old age.

I recently heard from a friend who's just  had a couple of capsules die apparently due to something having zapped their impedance converters but I believe that these are completely dead rather than just a bit out of spec. I'd second John's suggestion of a trip to whomever looks after Neumann in your area.