Let's talk about CAD mic's...

[trodden]

Just an FYI - I just contacted CAD to see if they'd go over my E100s for me, bring 'em up to spec and all that. I do this with a lot of my mics from time to time, and they're the first comany to tell me "that's an outdated model, and we no longer service them at all." They then offered me (a yet-to-be-stated) major discount on the new E100 2 with a trade-in of an old E100. I asked what the discount would be, and am awaiting their response.
However, I really don't want to be rid of my original E100s...

Anyone use the new ones?

Anyone think it's a little odd to not even look at them before declining to service them?

yeah man, i went through the same thing about 6 months ago... i declined. I figured i'd find parts and try to fix mine myself. I kinda fixed it.. well its a long story, but now i have one working e100 again and that's all that matters.

It seems like they changed completely as a company a few years ago... I dont know really, but they used to be super cool and nice about service, and I keep hearing that they dont even want to talk about servicing the old stuff... Lame.
Those old E100's are classic.. that whole first line: the 100/200/300 are all pretty awesome in their own way.

Yeah it was kinda funny, i started communicating with them right with the window of coolness was closing. At first, i was talking with a really nice tech guy, asking him how much, bench fees, how it would only take at most an hour on the bench, shipping blah blah blah.. would answer my emails right away etc. totally cool about taking a look at the e100. I got distracted and a couple of months passed, wrote them again and it was like "he doesn't work here anymore, we dont do that kind of service anymore. but if you want we'll take a look at your e100 but i doubt we can fix it and we'll honor the shipping costs previously quoted to you" which was really cool of them. so sent the mic and they said something along the lines of "no we don't carry the parts anymore, but we'll swap your mic out with one of the new versions for this much" and i decided for them to ship my old mic back. and they covered the shipping so that was cool of them as well. still, different company than the one i was talking to a couple months previous. Luckily Joel Patterson had some inopertable e100's i've used the parts from to frankenstien another one back to life. and if i could find another grill assembly, i'd have a second stock e100 to use.

Mark Allen- yeah man, on the batteries, i changed out all of the cad batts since they were kinda not holding a good charge anymore and got some of the blue radio shack nicads. I also bought some solder wick that day and the radio shack guy was confused when i told him i don't have a cell phone.

mic modeler. use it all the time, its as fun tool for di keyboards. I love reamping stuff but i'll also mic model the DI to see if anthing happens. Bypass mic on the input. total tone shaper. i seem to by using either the various ribbon mics in the list or the telefunken 47 model on a lot of di stuff. The "tube saturation" and proximity contols are fun as well. Hell, RealVerb mimics/models shapes and sounds of different substances, why not mic modeler? yeah its not "real" but a lot of things are smoke and mirrors. just sounds cool that is all.

[Scodiddly]

I haven't need to change the NiCd batteries in either of my old E-100 mics yet, but apparently they're slightly different than the usual "9v" NiCd. 8.4 volts instead of 7.2, which means they squeezed an extra cell in the battery.

I should probably start looking for the best replacements right now, I might need them next year.

[lancebug]

I am totally guilty of using Mic Modeller. Its mostly just fun to talk shit.

[Moon Unit]

OK I checked and on the Google cached copy of the old CAD site, I found a page that definitely says the M37 is US made.

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:Qe ... =firefox-a

It's right under where the picture should be.

And Music 123 retailer states that the M179 is US made:

http://www.music123.com/CAD-M179-i99128.music

The dealer I bought my M179 had also stated that it was US made. This is how I originally got my info I pretty sure.

They're a US company, and the mics are assembled in the States, etc.

But the capsules are Chinese.

The older M37s and the newer 79s share the same circuit board, but the capsules are different.

The M37/39s use the Shanghai capsule -- same as the Marshall mxlv67, etc. ... while the m77/79s use the 797 capsule -- same one as the Studio Projects C1, etc.

They're both good capsules, although my personal opinion is that the older ones have more of a "hole" in the upper mids, very similar to the M300, as Joel described it. This makes it a good choice for female vocals or males with a thinner voice. It's like a much cleaner, fuller version of the Marshall v67, without the cheap transformer.

The M177 / 79, comparitively speaking, is probably a little brighter. Both versions have exceptional low end response ... very flat all the way down to 10 hz or so, like the e100 /200/300. The electronics are just very accurate, flat, fast, etc. and do great justice to the Chinese capsules they employ.

.

[getreel]

In the Sound on Sound review of the M177/M179, it says this:

A lot of the budget condenser mics available today are manufactured in the Far East, almost regardless of whose badge appears on the body. It is worth noting, then, that CAD construct their own Optema capsule designs in a special clean-room facility within their factory in Ohio in the USA, and install them in microphones manufactured entirely on site.

Here's the link to the entire article:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct01/a ... admics.asp

There's also a thread over at Gearslutz that refutes this and suggests that it is not talking directly about the M177/M179. Apparently there is some controversy over where the capsules are made. I don't know why SOS would have the above quote in the article unless it referred to the actual mic being reviewed but whatever...obviously there are differences of opinion and different sources of information. I love my CAD mics so I'm not going to worry anymore about who made what where.

[Madguitrst]

I love my CAD mics so I'm not going to worry anymore about who made what where.

And that's what really matters.........

[Mark Alan Miller]

I love my CAD mics so I'm not going to worry anymore about who made what where.

And that's what really matters.........

Unless you want an out-of-production unit serviced.

But yeah, if it sounds great, use it. This is true.

[joelpatterson]

.... drum roll.... *chime*

Yes indeedy, CADs are awesome. Maybe not built to a bullet-proof standard, but when they are working right, they rule. Trodden, I also miss Duane--he was a very cool guy, and when he was ousted, I thought, hmmm... dark day. It also might be noted that a very positive review of the M9 tube mic was at the last minute dropped from a very respectable magazine due to their lack of paying for advertising, but that's all old history and we needn't stir them coals. More than a little.

The new Trion series is a vast leap forward from the E's, the 6000 especially is staggeringly real--the playback from an acoustic guitar has all the sting and snap and that kind of gutteral punch that almost hurts. The 8000 tube has a way of capturing the full field of whatever's infront of it to the n'th degree... it reminds me how alot of times, you'll use reverb to create an aura around a vocal, so that it stands out and shines, well, the 8000 is capturing that aura on its own, you can almost hear the cheekbones and the lifting eyebrows, it's wonderful. Although, if someone said they had one that was buzzy and funky from the start, well, I'm not surprised, as I say CAD has a way of cutting every corner to make things so reasonably priced, most often the corner is cut perfectly, but sometimes the racecar skids right off the road. The 7000 ribbon is mighty "bright" for a ribbon, very powerful output, very smooth and "spongy" lows.

Hey! I wonder if CAD is above a little payola... maybe I should check on that...

[Moon Unit]

Here's a link I digged up from another site. It starts to get revealing around the 7th post.

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showth ... ad+capsule

[Spark]

The new Trion series is a vast leap forward from the E's, the 6000 especially is staggeringly real--the playback from an acoustic guitar has all the sting and snap and that kind of gutteral punch that almost hurts.

Hmmm... Ive had my eye on one of those for a while. Slick looking mic. I may have to crack out the credit card.

[trodden]

Here's a link I digged up from another site. It starts to get revealing around the 7th post.

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showth ... ad+capsule

thanks for that link. interesting.

Joel, yeah, Duane was his name, totally nice guy. Hope he found a decent place to work for, companies could use people like that on the customer service/tech side of things.

[Leopold]

I just tried out the Trion 7000 dual ribbon. First thing I noticed was the output. I plugged in into the first channel of my Sytek pre and recorded a bit of tenor sax. I only had to put the gain at about 2-3 o'clock and had a good strong signal, room for more. The sound was a lot clearer than my other ribbon mics, Beyer M260 with the Sank 77dx mod and a Reslo with the Sank RCA 44 mod, with those mics I usually have to put the gain all the way up when recording sax on the Sytek. It sounded really nice on tenor, clear but not brittle and the top end had a nice roll off, I could play chirps and squeals with out the top end sounding like glass. Really nice proximity effect as well, i played some really low notes and got close up to it and it really enhanced the low end with out crapping out.
The next thing I did was plug it into my EH 12AY7 pre and this was a great combination. Usually that pre doesn't have enough gain to handle a ribbon with out giving it some help down the chain but it sounded great with the Trion. I really like the match between these two. The high end had a little more depth to it than with the sytek and the bottom had a nice roundness, sorta like a vintage sax sound.
I'm really happy with this mic, may end up getting another but I'd like to try the other Trion mics first.
I'm going to try out this mic on guitar cab next weekend, let you guy know what happens.

Eddie

[trodden]

I wish i could play the saxamaphone. People don't get it on how bad ass that instrument is.

[joelpatterson]

I wish i could play the saxamaphone. People don't get it on how bad ass that instrument is.

For reals, ass doesn't get any badder than that. Outside of a houseboat, that is...?

[mjau]

I am totally guilty of using Mic Modeller. Its mostly just fun to talk shit.

Just messed around with using it on DI'd tracks and whatnot - very cool. Thanks, thread!
My only experience with a CAD mic is with the M9 tube mic, which is way cool, way bright and glittery sounding, and looks kind of strange. And it picked up a hum like nobody's business.