Ruggedness of condenser microphones

**Dennis H** · 27 August 2008, 23:14 Wednesday

Here's how mine came back. Not too bad:

Yeah, only a 3.5 dB peak at 10K. Much better than some others I've seen recently.

**chasw98** · 28 August 2008, 08:45 Thursday

Here is my graph of my ECM8000 just for comparison.

My experience with condenser and ribbon mics ranging from $200.00 Beyer's to $5,000.00 Bruel & Kjaer/Neumann mics is "BE CAREFUL"!!! The ECM8000 seems fairly rugged but the capsule can be easily damaged by the right kind of drop or whoopsie. You just never know which one it will be. If you look at it this way, it might become clearer how fragile these diaphragms are. Basically it is a miniature speaker in reverse. There is a voice coil and a magnet that the capsule rides in and produces a very, very tiny voltage from the output of the air pressure it senses. So for it to be accurate, it must remain in the same relative position for all of it's life. If the position of the voice coil in relation to the magnet changes, the mic would still work properly, but the frequency response may be altered. Which is why testing labs send out their measuring mics on a regular interval for calibration. Best to just be careful and treat it like a scientific instrument even if it does only cost $50.00 to buy. Or send it Kim once every couple of years and you will know for sure.

**Mazeroth** · 29 August 2008, 08:24 Friday

chasw98,

Want to trade? :B I'm definitely going to treat this like a multi thousand dollar instrument. My initial thought was if during shipping back if it was roughly handled (i.e. dropped) that it could affect the integrity of the microphone. Granted, it's pretty well packed inside the ECM8000's carrying case but from a decent fall the jarring might throw something off. I guess we can only hope everything is alright and measure with confidence! :T Not like my ears could even detect a 1 dB change, anyhow.

**CraigJ** · 29 August 2008, 09:41 Friday

Originally posted by Mazeroth

I had dropped it a few times and bumped it against objects more than once :B What I'm wondering is, does this affect the integrity of the microphone.......

Oh my, is that the mic you sold me?

CraigJ

**Mazeroth** · 29 August 2008, 10:32 Friday

Originally posted by CraigJ

Oh my, is that the mic you sold me?

CraigJ

:rofl:

No, sir. I purchased another spare Mazurek had (he used to be my neighbor) that he used for a while. I then decided it would be best to use a brand new, unopened one to send away for calibration and bought a new one at the PE tent sale. I'm keeping the one I dropped as another backup that I'm going to calibrate with my current mic just like I'm going to do for yours. Plus, it will be a good indicator of what does happen to a mic that's been dropped a few times.

I should have yours done this weekend and will have it shipped out early next week.

**Dennis H** · 29 August 2008, 11:58 Friday

Originally posted by chasw98

Here is my graph of my ECM8000 just for comparison.

Want to sell it?

**chasw98** · 29 August 2008, 13:14 Friday

Originally posted by Dennis H

Want to sell it?

Then I would have to get another one and have it calibrated again.......

**Dennis H** · 29 August 2008, 14:19 Friday

I know, I was just kidding, Chuck.

Looks like you got one of the nice old ones with flat response so you'd better hang onto it. The new ones aren't as good although Mazeroth's doesn't look too bad. I'd be a bit concerned about trying to correct a 10dB resonance with a cal file -- kinda like trying to use a metal cone up in its breakup region. FWIW, Ray Rayburn quit selling the OEM Superlux version.

Just a moment...

http://www.testmic.com/

http://www.superlux.com.tw/