Topic: Steven Paul U87 mods?

[moellenium]

Is anybody here familiar with any of the U87 mods from Steven Paul Audio?  Our facilities engineer here at work suggested I check them out.  Supposedly they can swap out your capsules with their version which includes a 1.5 micron membrane that drastically increases sensitivity.  They also replace the amplifier with their version which extends the low end.  The modification costs around $1400 per mic.  Sounds pretty interesting.  They have a website at.

 www.spaudio.com

[moellenium]

sorry, I just realized how useless that website is

[muj]

david satz is selling his modded 87 with 3 micron diaph. at ebay

as far as modding goes, the options for neumann mics are endless at spaudio.

you can get whatever you want

[dmonterisi]

yeah, fwiw, doug oade highly recommends the work that spaudio does on neumann microphones.  he suggested sending my u89's there just for cleaning and bringing up to spec...but i ended up going with neumann cause it was faster...

[JasonSobel]

There is one person here who runs a SP modded AKG stereo mic.  I have a couple of his recordings, and they sound absolutely fantastic.  not totally on topic, but thought it was worth mentioning.

[dmonterisi]

do you own the u87's already or would you be buying them and then sending them for the mod?  what uses are you envisioning for them, ie is this for concert recording or other type of recording??

[moellenium]

I'm looking to switch to large diaphram for concert recording and I also work in a large post house in L.A. so I might use them to do some FX stuff, but I'll probably stick with my shoeps for the most part when I do stuff for work.  I don't currently own a pair of U87s, I was hoping I might be able to find a couple that aren't working so that I could have SPA recondition them and do the mods without replaciing functioning parts.

[dmonterisi]

cool, best of luck...i was able to get very good deals on u89's off of ebay that were a little dinged up but worked fine.  one required a few dbs more gain than the other, but frequency response was within a db by neumann's tests.  you may consider the u89's for concert work, given the 2 extra pickup patterns.  the subcards was my favorite of the patterns when i owned them.  having hypers is an invaluable option in some circumstances as well.

[Brian]

we have two of them here at school.  i've never taped with them but i have used them on EVERYTHING but kick or snare drum.  they are great!

[moellenium]

Thanks for replying so promptly, I really appreciate the advice.  Is David Satz, a member of TS?  If so could someone tell me his user name so that I can PM him and ask a few questions?  Thanks again.

[baustin]

About a year ago, I called around trying to get my u89i's modded. I wanted to have the top capsule and grill part removed from the body with some type of active cable in between. Ideally the mics would be lower profile with the exclusion of large shock mounts and the bodies kept in my gear bag. I don't remember the name of the guy I spoke to, he worked as a Neumann technician for years. He basically scorned me for using the mics in the conditions I do. ;-) He told me that the capsules couldn't be more than a few inches from the bodies and for the price I would have to pay to get it done, I should buy a different pair of mics. 

I wonder what SPAudio would have to say about this?

-BA

[VA_TAPER]

I would highly reccommend Stephen Paul Audio's work.  Having my mic mod'ed by SPA has done more for my tapes than any other change.  I had the 1-micron diaphragms done on both capsules, capsules tuned to custom frequency response, electronics upgrade. 

The transient response is amazing it's much quicker than anything I've owned before including the Royer SF-12 ribbon mic.

See the below show for my most recent outing with the mic:
http://www.archive.org/audio/audio-details-db.php?id=28783&from=BA

Tony Merrill carried on Stephen Paul's work following Stephen's death.  I have nothing but great things to say about Tony.  He know the environment I use the mic in and even enjoys listening to the tapes afterwards.  Really good guy.

my $.02

peace, chris

p.s. all this typing doesn't convey the message, download some tracks from the above show!