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Buying used Schoeps Capsules


ambientandambience

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I have Schoeps capsules I bought new that are a few years older than '85, as well as some fairly new ones.  The ones I bought new still sound great, vs newer capsules.  Some of the used ones I've bought since eventually went a bit off, and got sent back to Schoeps.  $400 or so later they are basically brand new.  I have a lot of Schoeps mics (many with bodies updated by Pete V) and they are pretty consistent I'd say.   The important thing is to have a known-good Schoeps of the same pattern to compare the one you might buy to.

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I’ve got a bunch of Schoeps mics that I purchased used. Some I’ve had for a few years and some I’ve had for less time than that. Overall it’s up to how they were treated, but my rule of thumb is that I test them before buying. Schoeps makes incredibly high end mics so as long as they’ve been well looked after, you may struggle to hear the difference from one from the 70s vs. one made today. 

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One other factor in buying used Schoeps mics is considering why they are being sold?  Recordists keep mics like Schoeps for their whole careers, often only selling them when they retire.  Is this mic being sold because it's damaged?  Stolen?  One reason it is easier to find used MK41s vs MK4s or MK2s is that the former was a kind of standard for motion picture boom use, but now many people have moved to other types for their main boom mics, so they come up used fairly often.  MK4 and especially Mk2, being more in the realm of music recording, become available used in much smaller numbers.

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I bought my first one in 83. the second in 88-89. the third in 90-1. I still like the way mine sound. I use them all the time. One is a bit hissy but I doubt it's the capsule. I'm sure it depends on how they've been used and cared for but mine have served me well. Like JW said, I'd want to hear it first before $$$ is $pent.

CrewC

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22 hours ago, Trey LaCroix said:

I have a 20 year old Schoeps and a 4 year old schoeps and did a blind test a while back. I could not for the life of me tell the difference.

 

The consistent difference I can tell between our mid 80's Schoeps and newer ones is the improved RF shielding. All in all we own a dozen or more and in a difficult RF environment the old ones are more susceptible to interference. I don't know if this is due to preamp design, the capsule or both.

Beyond that I'd say that each of the old capsules now sounds slightly different due to different exposure to the elements, handling, abuse during traveling, etc, while all the newer ones sound identical.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Whenever I've bought used Schoeps equipment I've sent it back to the factory for checkout. Even capsules that were claimed to be in "excellent" or "like new" condition have needed some degree of repair about half the time. I don't blame the sellers; they can be 100% honest but unaware of internal problems that may exist.

 

As far as changes over the years are concerned, newer capsules of some types (e.g. the MK 2 omni) are more sensitive than the ones from the first decade or two of the Colette series, thus lowering the equivalent noise of the microphone as a whole. A few types of capsule have also undergone improvements in frequency response at one or both ends of the range. For example an MK 8 with the newer, more open housing type will have more extended low-frequency response than the original type did; an older capsule can be remounted in a new housing to get this improvement.

 

With older capsules that need more serious repair, Schoeps may update them to some extent when repairing them. That depends on the repairs that are needed, though. if a particular capsule has sonic characteristics that you want to maintain as closely as possible, you should let them know that when you send it in, in case they have to replace major parts; they can sometimes accommodate such requests. They keep records of every capsule they've made since 1950, and update those records when repairs are made, although as of last year they no longer repair microphones older than the Colette and CCM series.

 

--best regards

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  • 2 months later...

Q-

29 minutes ago, mano said:

I may have made a seperate post about this, but how would you guys consider noise floor on older MK41 capsules compared to new ones?

A-

On 12/7/2019 at 5:57 PM, JonG said:

you may struggle to hear the difference from one from the 70s vs. one made today.

 

@mano Congrats on getting the Schoeps BTW. 

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37 minutes ago, Dalton Patterson said:

Q-

A-

 

@mano Congrats on getting the Schoeps BTW. 

Thanks for the answer. I was interested in this after reading DSatz's comment.
It is a sweet sounding mic, indeed, bought it for an upcoming 3 week documentary shoot, can't wait to put it to the test.
 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/13/2020 at 1:36 PM, mano said:

Thanks for the answer. I was interested in this after reading DSatz's comment.
It is a sweet sounding mic, indeed, bought it for an upcoming 3 week documentary shoot, can't wait to put it to the test.
 

 

The naturalness of an MK41 capsule, as well as the smoothness of its off-axis pickup is awesome. You will no doubt learn to appreciate it even more over time as it proves stellar in so many different situations.

 

GEEKINESS:  Worthy of note is the fact that the MK41 capsule is a Super-Cardioid design, which is between a Cardioid and a Hyper-Cardioid. This results in a pickup pattern that is tighter than a cardioid and has less of a rear lobe than a Hyper-Cardioid. In some cases an MK41 appears to have a wider pattern than it actually does as its smooth off-axis maintains the high frequencies in a more linear fashion than do many other directional mics that tend to exhibit more of a narrow cone effect in the highs.

 

Enjoy!

 

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In my experience sending a Schoeps capsule backs to the factory will often result in a repair bill that will be more than the new-purchase price of some pretty nice mics from other brands.  But the result is that you get back what is essentially a new mic--good to go for a long time.  In my live music recording work I've come to rely on my Schoeps collection more as the years have passed.  It seems like the setup time and the sound checks I get (if I get a sound check that isn't just the first song of the first set) have gotten progressively shorter, so I often only get to make one mic choice and then have live with it.  The Schoeps sound great on nearly everything, so they are usually the ones out of the mic case first.

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16 hours ago, Mikro Addict said:

Bitte, Jemand verkauft aus Deutschland, einen verbrauchten, aber im guter Stand, der Schoeps MK41Mikro? I brauche nur den ersten Teil. 

Biite, lassen Sie einen Nachricht an mir.

 

Pm sent with this humble find on "ebay kleinanzeigen".

https://m.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/schoeps-mk41-mikrofonkapsel/1398759992-168-3395

But... What DSatz and Jeff said. 

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