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Duh. I have always been afraid of 5-pin DINS. I'm trying to plugin the male end of a cable into a female connector at the base of a mic (congrats to me: I commissioned a Neumann U47 replica, and it is awesome.) I'm sure the pins are straight and I managed to plug it in last night. But today, still difficult. Any tips? This has plagued me for years.

Comments

paulears Sun, 04/06/2014 - 23:32

Are you trying to use a cheap hifi style DIN or the proper Tuchel version? Hifi DINs are usually too stiff or too loose because they're a bit rubbish, while the proper connector is firm, but goes in easier? If I'd had a mic built I'd have used an XLR, because they're better, and on a copy it doesn't matter.

RemyRAD Mon, 04/07/2014 - 21:25

5 pins, could indicate that it is a tube condenser microphone that requires an external power supply? You said you had commissioned an imitation U-47? Well those require a tube power supply. You wouldn't get the microphone without the power supply now would ya? You mentioned nothing about a power supply? A FET 47? How can you commission a microphone, you don't know how to wire? Have you ever considered asking the manufacturer? Did they supply ya with a schematic? How do you power up the tube? You're not making sense.

You're not supposed to steal microphones you know nothing about.

Let's try this again?
Mx. Remy Ann David

Larry F Mon, 04/07/2014 - 21:54

RemyRAD, post: 413447, member: 26269 wrote: 5 pins, could indicate that it is a tube condenser microphone that requires an external power supply? You said you had commissioned an imitation U-47? Well those require a tube power supply. You wouldn't get the microphone without the power supply now would ya? You mentioned nothing about a power supply? A FET 47? How can you commission a microphone, you don't know how to wire? Have you ever considered asking the manufacturer? Did they supply ya with a schematic? How do you power up the tube? You're not making sense.

You're not supposed to steal microphones you know nothing about.

Let's try this again?
Mx. Remy Ann David

I wasn't clear and I'm sorry. My biggest problem is that I am partially paralyzed, so handling things with my hands isn't as easy as it used to be. I tried a different cable last night, which works fine, so I'm cooking with gas again.

About the mic, I saw one he made in his recording studio several years ago and really liked it. I teach electronic music at my university, but my disability makes it very difficult to go there often to compose. I did not want to go on disability, but I finally broke down and asked for help from the university in doing my work. Their solution was to help me put together a studio at home, to save me from all the traveling. In doing this, I was able to budget for a mic like this, built by the same guy who made the other one that I saw. That's what I meant by commission, a term that is common in my field of classical music. I certainly didn't come up with a design for him to realize. Instead, we talked via email on the different options he offered.

I have asked him to put together a spec sheet. Here is part of a draft of that: "The weak link in the Nuemann U47 was the VF14 tube which can be both microphonic and noisy. I had to beef up the power supply to substitute a NOS 6072 tube. The 6072 is a 12AY7 that AKG used in their C12's. This tube requires more power to run but is way more quiet, almost never microphonic and will last for decades (save physical abuse). The other feature borrowed from the C12 is the multi pattern selection from Omni to Cardioid to Figure Eight with seven variations in between. Its kinda like a U47 and a C12 had a baby. By the way, The 6072 (12AY7) was chosen because it is clean with lots of headroom but can be readily substituted for a 12AX7 ; giving more volume, more noise and possibly driven to distortion. Just in case you are recording Nine Inch Nails vocals."

anonymous Wed, 04/09/2014 - 06:23

It sounds like a very nice microphone. I don't know anything about weak links in the U47 because I've never been lucky enough to use one. I do know that the AY7 was used in place of other tubes because it was quiet but still ample.
You didn't answer Remy's question though... do you have a power supply with this model?

edit... forget my last question.. I just read your post again where you talk about the power supply being beefed up. My mistake.