A big hello to this place.

I will get straight to the point. I'm searching any suggestions, advices or opinions about how to get my two 441 to work. (for some live taping experiments.I have a sony MD with PCM recording capabilities to which i would like to connect the two dynamic mics for stereo-recordings.)
The problem is the sound of the mics. I purchased them second-hand and i think they once received too much air pressure because my father had to resolder the coil connection to get some sound out of them. One mic was very sensible of direct contact(fingers touching it) with the housing so my father tried to re-adjust the position of the capsule which hangs inside the housing.That helped a bit but the sound of the two mics is still wrong. The highs and low-end basses are lacking(compared to an 421 i also purchased). DO ANYONE CAN HELP ME ?
I think i could get a reference 441 mic from a friend so i need to know how to adjust the capsule or what else could be the answer to that problem ?

Thanks

Phil

Welcome aboard.

If they pass some sound, I'd talk to Sennheiser about servicing. I remember that a replacement capsule runs about as much or more than the mics do used, so a completely silent mic would not bode as well. But it isn't so dire a symptom, so it might be within reason for their service people to get these up to factory spec.

The 441 is a great mic, but it's also probably the most precision-built dynamic mic ever. It's a bit old-world technology, considering how things are made now. Excepting Sennheiser, I don't know anyone offhand who's up to working on these.

Have you checked these through a normal preamp instead of into your MD deck? I have no idea of what's typical, but I don't think they usually contemplate dynamic mics as the standard source for these recorders, and probably have electrets more in mind in terms of level and impedence. If you're just patched straight in, it might be a fluke that the 421 sounds better.

A really good technical forum for all sorts of things audio is at www.prodigy.pro/forum , and while I can't recall this having come up, if people know about doing DIY repair on the 441, they probably hang there.

Bear

Thanks Bear,

You're right. An exchange of the capsule is expensive. That's why i'm mentioning a DIY solution. I'll check out that web page you said. Actually i haven't connected the mics to the minidisc yet, i only used mic-pre's for testing. Probably you're right saying they wouldn't fit for my Minidisc. But i want to convience myself of that trying it out. Anyway thanks for your contribution.

Phil