Topic: The AKG Actives Project

[Sanjay]

crap, nice work my friend

[JasonR]

Very cool, indeed!  Any chance of your playing with some Schoeps caps, Richard?

[china_rider]

Wow that is alot of wires and alligator clips.  Good to see the clips used for their intended purposes. 

Knowing nothing about electronics all those 9v seems like alot... But wondering what the ! on the two 1Gohm (!) resistors indicated.  I take it this is different than what you would expect to use?

Dana

[poorlyconditioned]

Very cool, indeed!  Any chance of your playing with some Schoeps caps, Richard?

No way I'm going to play with other stuff, unless someone gives me them .  I'm out enough money already buying the AKGs.

[thegreatgumbino]

Good job, Richard!  +T

Any chance of getting a crude schematic? 

[IowaClint]

Have you set a price once these get cleaned up?   
~Clint

[TNJazz]

Have you set a price once these get cleaned up?   
~Clint

+t

Thanks for the laugh on a sweltering Monday morning!

[leehookem]

Very cool, indeed!  Any chance of your playing with some Schoeps caps, Richard?

no need for him to either.  they already make actives. 

[thegreatgumbino]

Shown below: six (!) 9V batteries in series for the polarization voltage, two FETs, two 1Gohm (!) resistors, and other various parts.  I have not done extensive testing, but it "appears" to work, that is, I can speak into the mic and hear myself clearly.

Sans the 9v's, would the two FETs, the two 1Gohm (!) resistors, and the various other parts be all that's needed to create an extension cable to run from the 460 bodies to the ck6_ caps?  Seems like the mk46 cables could be modified to work with this setup?   

[Sanjay]

No they would not, because the AKG bodies have a FET in them already, what you see when you unscrew the cap is the connection between the FET and the capsule. 

You need a bare polarization voltage to transmit over a long enough distance to the FET at the capsule, there is no way to get that polarization voltage from the connector on the bodies.  This is what i've gathered from my ideas and experiments.

[fozzy]

I am assuming a mic body is off to the right where the +(yellow cable) goes.  Or is this solution to just place everything @ the capsule a la the CCM or 402x mics?

[poorlyconditioned]

Good job, Richard!  +T

Any chance of getting a crude schematic? 

Yeah, I'll post a "blackboard drawing" in a bit.

  Richard

[terrapinj]

RIchard how is that you accomplished this in a matter of days, where others have been struggling for much much longer? will adding length to the cables cause any issues at all? i am really impressed and can't wait to hear some samples.

of course you accomplish this right after I finally acquire some active cables 

[poorlyconditioned]

No they would not, because the AKG bodies have a FET in them already, what you see when you unscrew the cap is the connection between the FET and the capsule. 

You need a bare polarization voltage to transmit over a long enough distance to the FET at the capsule, there is no way to get that polarization voltage from the connector on the bodies.  This is what i've gathered from my ideas and experiments.

Actually, you *could* make an extension cable to run the capsules from the 460/480 bodies.  Well, basically you would just get the polarization voltage from the 460/480 body and run it to the cap with the FETs *at the capsule*, then take the signal off the FETs.  So the body would do nothing but provide the polarization voltage.

But I am not interested in doing this.  I don't want to buy/carry the mic body!  The whole point for me is to have mics for a cheap price, for just the price of the capsules.  Others are welcome to experiment with using the existing bodies, adding preamps to bring output to line level, etc.

OK, the next step is to build this into a collette at the mic capsule.  (So, does anyone have collettes for these capsules?)  Next I'll try to field test.

Thanks for your interest!

  Richard

[Sanjay]

No they would not, because the AKG bodies have a FET in them already, what you see when you unscrew the cap is the connection between the FET and the capsule. 

You need a bare polarization voltage to transmit over a long enough distance to the FET at the capsule, there is no way to get that polarization voltage from the connector on the bodies.  This is what i've gathered from my ideas and experiments.

Actually, you *could* make an extension cable to run the capsules from the 460/480 bodies.  Well, basically you would just get the polarization voltage from the 460/480 body and run it to the cap with the FETs *at the capsule*, then take the signal off the FETs.  So the body would do nothing but provide the polarization voltage.

But I am not interested in doing this.  I don't want to buy/carry the mic body!  The whole point for me is to have mics for a cheap price, for just the price of the capsules.  Others are welcome to experiment with using the existing bodies, adding preamps to bring output to line level, etc.

OK, the next step is to build this into a collette at the mic capsule.  (So, does anyone have collettes for these capsules?)  Next I'll try to field test.

Thanks for your interest!

  Richard

someone tried this I believe, the polarization voltage provided by the bodies won't carry over a long enough distance.  there's a thread about it somewhere.