Taperssection.com
Gear / Technical Help => Microphones & Setup => Topic started by: Matt Quinn on February 26, 2008, 12:30:35 PM
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:D
I'm on the hunt for a pair, would love to find them used, but am trying to suss out new options, too. I know they are all supposed to sell for the same price, but wasn't sure if there were any hidden deals/b-stock type things going on out there somewhere.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Matt
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Not aware of any deals on new... Especially right after the price increase.
And fwiw I've seen caps described as 'excellent' that have chips of paint missing. So keep in mind one persons excellent is another persons 'kinda beat up'.
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I'd be all about 'kinda beat up', as long as they are 100% functional. ;D
Thanks!
Anybody else?
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i would be leery of 'kinda beat up' caps.
were not just dealing with run of the mill durable solid state electronics here. transducers are sensitive instruments that can be easily affected by smoke/humidity/shock/etc. Caps that are anything less than perfect usually suggest rough handling and lack of care, imo.
I'd be all about 'kinda beat up', as long as they are 100% functional. ;D
Thanks!
Anybody else?
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i would be leery of 'kinda beat up' caps.
were not just dealing with run of the mill durable solid state electronics here. transducers are sensitive instruments that can be easily affected by smoke/humidity/shock/etc. Caps that are anything less than perfect usually suggest rough handling and lack of care, imo.
I'd be all about 'kinda beat up', as long as they are 100% functional. ;D
Thanks!
Anybody else?
That's why I said '100% functional'. ;)
Anyone have preferred dealers? Posthorn/SonicSense etc etc?
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I prefer Posthorn because they are the only vendor I know of that actually stocks internal spare parts for schoeps actives stateside and can do simple repairs on them (like if you rip a cable out, or want cables shortened, etc).
Dsatz says caps sitting unused on the shelf in their original cases can lose their matching over time.. So any cap that looks beat up would certainly need re-certification by schoeps in order to be verified 100%.
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> Dsatz says caps sitting unused on the shelf in their original cases can lose their matching over time.. So any cap that looks beat up would certainly need re-certification by schoeps in order to be verified 100%.
DSatz says that as far as I (he) can find out, there just isn't any way to predict the performance of an older capsule whether it's been beaten up or not. I have one MK 41 capsule that I accidentally dropped six feet onto concrete, which I sent back to the factory right away for checkout but it seemingly hadn't been affected at all. I've also had capsules which lived a nice peaceful life for 30+ years, but were out of spec at the end of all that time; they were rebuilt at the factory and sound wonderful today. (In fact that pair of capsules was a rather poor match at first, and came out of the rebuilding process matching quite a bit more closely than before.)
That's just my personal experience, but I've also tried to quiz the head of quality control and customer service at Schoeps about this, and he essentially denies that there are any readily observable patterns. It's not like "the pressure gradient capsules lose their tension over time, the bass response starts to droop and the cardioid pattern becomes more like the shape of a three-cornered hat"--instead he told me that things simply change, sometimes more than others, not in predictable ways. I'm paraphrasing heavily and he was telling me all this in German to begin with, but that's more or less the message I got.
--best regards
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I love DalePro Audio:
http://www.daleproaudio.com/ (http://www.daleproaudio.com/)
Call Dan Ross. HE is an old school taper and is a schoeps guy... He owns every capsule they make... He is aggressive on price as well.... Tell him Adam with MOTB sent you...
A :D