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DPA slim cable getting stiff and brakes


Lauri Laagus

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I had this happen to four of my 4063s. I wrote to dpa and they said its likley because i cleaned them too much! I used to clean them every once in a while with olive oil but now I feel it was the olive oil that made them crazy stiff. I have since bought new ones to replace the older stiff ones and have refrained from cleaning them with anything but my fingers. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

While I love DPA 4061 sound wise I was disappointed when I had a crack in the insulation about 3cm long. The lav was only a few months old, and very little use but dpa refused to replace the cable. They could not understand how that could have happened.

Its like the insulation is split. Taped it and still use it since over a year now.  

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A guy I worked with last two weeks had two of them break. I got 4063s in my kit and so far so good (but don't use 'em often) and I'll be watching things about their response as to waranty. That could be a deal breaker for me if they ever say ''too late, sorry'' as there seems to be so much of these mics breaking either at the head (capsule) or along the wire.

 

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Dpa r a joke.   I have 3 4063. At the connector all have failed multiple times.   

 

My cos11 while they don’t sound near as good.  I’ve never had a connector end failure.  

 

Their denial is ridiculous.  I have repair invoices from trew and Gotham to prove otherwise.  

 

 

They need to talk to countryman and Sanken about cable.   Thinking about shrink wrap / glue retro fitting mine over to mogami lav wire.  

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On 10/17/2018 at 12:34 AM, Armin Siegwarth said:

While I love DPA 4061 sound wise I was disappointed when I had a crack in the insulation about 3cm long. The lav was only a few months old, and very little use but dpa refused to replace the cable. They could not understand how that could have happened.

Its like the insulation is split. Taped it and still use it since over a year now.  

 

I wouldn't have accepted such a refusal.  I would have insisted on a refund or a date in court.  The EU gives you good, solid protection against such behaviour - a microphone cable should last at least 5 years IMO.

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Hi all, ok,  Here is a picture I took of 5 of my DPA 4063's.  When I was cleaning them this morning I noticed that the beige one felt incredibly different, it feels as though it's thicker, it's much stiffer, and as you can see, more "curly" than the rest.  I have them hanging up with about an inch of the wire and capsule above the hanging point. I also attached a AA cell to the microdot that is hanging down. I do this to "uncoil" them. Comments?

Thank you, Martin

20181020_163729.jpg

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2 hours ago, jason porter said:

Every DPA lav that I've ever owned has stiffened up to the point where I don't use them anymore. I've never cleaned them with anything other than my fingers (no solvents, etc)

 

I've not used any solvent either but debate using water-wet cloth before longer storage in future because sweat (salt). Perhaps salt's the culprit.

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Baby wipes (oily and none-oily) seem to work quite well for me. They can remove leftover glue, salt, etc. i find it difficult to judge the current generation‘s cable quality, as that is quite different from how it was a few years ago. They have improved it quite a bit over the years. 

 

21 hours ago, Prahlad Strickland said:

Dpa r a joke.   I have 3 4063. At the connector all have failed multiple times.   

 

I have 18, 5 of which are on permanent loan. I have one mic failure per year on average (including the loaners) and in every single instance I know for sure that it was bad treatment, usually by an actor ripping the mic off, or something like that. 

 

21 hours ago, Prahlad Strickland said:

Their denial is ridiculous.  I have repair invoices from trew and Gotham to prove otherwise.  

 

So the invoices literally state that the problem appeared due to a bad cable? That it wasn’t some other physical strain put on the mic?

 

21 hours ago, Prahlad Strickland said:

They need to talk to countryman and Sanken about cable.  

 

I have three B6 that would disagree. All cable failures. 

I never had a failure on my two COS11‘s, but I also don’t use them. Their cable may be sturdy, but it’s too thick. 

Did you check out DPA‘s heavy duty versions of their mics? Maybe that’s more to you liking

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The new 6060 cable could be an improvement, I was shown one the other day, it was the first thing I noticed, definitely a softer feel than any of my 4060's, 4063, and slim, when they were new.
Lets hope DPA have taken notice of many people experiencing hardening cables, and this is a new formulation that addresses the issue......

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1 hour ago, pindrop said:

The new 6060 cable could be an improvement, I was shown one the other day, it was the first thing I noticed, definitely a softer feel than any of my 4060's, 4063, and slim, when they were new.
Lets hope DPA have taken notice of many people experiencing hardening cables, and this is a new formulation that addresses the issue......

 

Went to a DPA workshop yesterday and Rune Slot from DPA said that the 6060/1 uses the exact same mogami cable as the current 40xx series mics.

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  • 3 months later...

Update on my cables. One broke again from the connector end and when i started to repair noticed that inner wire isolation has turned to almost powder like.

Had to replace the whole wire. Something strange is going on with dpa. Two older slims are ok, bit stiff but not breaking. Two newer ones are headache.

Hoping that new 606X series is better.

51454134_2021305254649235_7721756061769662464_n.jpg

suurendus.jpg

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This is interesting to see.  I have one pair of 4060 that got 18ish years ago, and they are still perfectly pliable.  I did send them in to have microdot connectors put on and the length extended in the last decade, as they were raw wire ends about a foot long when I got them.   DPA repair here in the US told me the cable was non-original and slimmer than anything DPA ever used, and wanted to know who had replaced it.  That thing I can't see is how anyone would have replaced the cable all the way into the capsule casing, as it looks snug and it's hard to imagine anything fatter fitting.  I've wondered if units that old did use a slimmer cable and the tech simply doesn't know about it.  

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