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neumann km 150 as boom - thoughts?


bendybones

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" Anyone else? "

why...

you don't believe us ??

are you waiting for "us" to give you are approval to try it yourself?? approval granted.

it will be your own personal choice made for mostly subjective reasons, and on the finished product, no one besides you, -and whoever else you let know,- will be able to recognize it.

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I've used Neumann mikes, including the KM140 and the KM185, on booms with very pleasing results. They are outstanding microphones and perform very well.

HOWEVER, I have not had consistently good results using them in a wireless boom configuration. When powered with a Denecke or PSC phantom power box, I have encountered low level background noise. In most circumstances, this is not objectionable as it is buried under the background noise of the stage or location. When the performer speaks very quietly and one needs to raise the gain, the background noise becomes objectionable. I don't know why this is. I sent the mikes back to the Neumann facility in Connecticut for service and for upgrading to the latest specs. On one occasion Neumann USA actually installed a new amplifier circuit board. While the problem was somewhat lessened, nothing seemed to cure it completely.

When used with a cable to the mixer, everything was very good. When used with a radio link, not so good.

Eventually, I gave up and acquired Sennheiser 8050 microphones that work excellently well with radio links.

I haven't tried using the Neumann mikes with the Sound Devices portable pre-amps (MM-1, MP-1) but I think that might resolve the problem.

By the way, the Neumann shotguns (81i, 82i) employ a different amplifier design and work just fine in radio boom configurations.

David

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HOWEVER, I have not had consistently good results using them in a wireless boom configuration. When powered with a Denecke or PSC phantom power box.

Just a reminder. The KM140 or 150 have impedence, but not signal balanced outputs. Pin 3 is hot on these mics, and pin 2 is shunted to ground (through a cap) inside the mic shell. In order to power these mics effectively from one of these portable power supplies, you will need to make a simple polarity reversal cable. If you want to get picky... just reverse the polarity again at the board.

The 185 won't have this "problem" (it's not really that big a deal in practice).

Hope this helps

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In order to power these mics effectively from one of these portable power supplies, you will need to make a simple polarity reversal cable.

I ran them with reverse polarity wiring.

Without the reverse polarity wiring, there is no audio at the transmitter.

With it, there is audio but the problem of increased noise remains.

I went to a lot of trouble over this and brought the issue to the attention of Neumann engineers on their users forum. If the answer were that simple, I would have adopted it and moved on. Wyatt, I do appreciate your suggestion - and it's on point - but something else is going on.

David

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So sorry David,

I used an excerpt from your post to provide a context. My post was not intended to be directed toward you personally. Im sorry that it came off that way.

Anyway, I just thought it might be useful for the original poster or any others who are looking to use this setup... And hopefully it can be.

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KM150 is the interior mic I learnt on. Love and somewhat miss the neumann sound.recorded some great jazz trumpet on that mic. I have since gone the schoeps route.At the time schoeps was more affordable and available. Still wish (and someday will) to have a few neumanns in my arsenal.

If you do music/dynamic recording the advantage of the in built pad is a saviour.

Handling noise wise I would say it is similar to any of it's cousins (senn50 shoeps41) treat it gentle smooth and point in the right direction. I have used the 150 and the 41 and 50 in various mounts.. rycote white pointer, black ring(s)? and lyres without an issue.

The 50 and 41 are somewhat guilty of wild noise but are still my my favourites outdoors when used properly.

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I've a pair of km150 and I use them mostly for stereo recording, and sometimes for booming in reverberant places and they work well.

It sounds very similar to schoeps mk41. It needs more gain than a shotgun but it's not a problem if you have a decent preamp in your recorder.

To have a good shockmount is extremely recommended with this mic. I use Cinela Osix1.

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I used the KK150 since it was first first issued and later the, acoustically identical, and substatially cheaper KM185 for decades. It is more durable than the Mk41 and I like the lively sound better. It is useful to have an on board low cut filter for the KK50 capsule There's a few NOS of the rare K100 electronic packages with a low cut switch (which eliminates the previously described pin 2 AC ground problem too)

available.

But realize that many of the Neumans still available today have a sensitivity to RF. I had described this problem (especially pernicious with camera mounted VHF TV viewfinder transmitters) to the microphone's designer, Stephan Peus, while I visited him in 2002 in Berlin. A while later (more due to TBS/Warner Borthers Sound Dept than myself) they modified the KM185 (SN above 50000) to be exceptionally RF immune.

Meanwhile, my workaround for the RF problem was the Oktave MK012 with hypercardiod capsule. The Oktava has lots of low frequency response though. Recently, Oktave has issued an in-line low cut filter accessory (about $110). So you might want to try this filter before abandoning your setup. Also note that Oktave also has an in-line roght angle swivel adapter accessory too in, delayed, response to the "film" market.

The Oktave gave me just about 90% of KM150/185 quality. If you are looking for that 5% you might try Michael Joly's mod of the electronics package (about $100 + postage). Just google Oktave Mod. Michael is an Oktava dealer so you could order the low cut filter and swivel from him too since I don't know a stocking LA dealer.

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what about the frecuency response? the curve show that they begins to cut on 500hz, on 50hz it's on -10db. that's not a big deal on male voices? i' m asking because i own a kmr 81 and i'm thinking it can be a good mic to work on interior, but the only thing that is scare me is that low cut.

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I have been using Neumanns for years.

Used to be a Schoeps guy, but got tired of dealing with humidity problems.

Bruce Bisenz gave me a pair of 150's and told me to use them for two weeks, then go back to my Schoeps.

I did, and sold all my Schoeps.

Currently I have 2 each 184, 185, km81, km82.

For the short mics, the Cinela mount is the only mount that actually works, IMHO.

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