Cascade vs. Shinybox

ceylon · Post by **ceylon** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:46 am

how do i dampen the mxl body properly?

what exactly is the procedure and cost for a PE (premium electrnics?) upgrade on an mxl? how good can it get? yeah, that is a harsh mic.

ceylon · Post by **ceylon** » Sun Jul 10, 2011 5:38 pm

oop! shinybox w/ CINEMAG is the one i have

Producer/Engineer · Post by **Producer/Engineer** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:29 pm

Gregg Juke wrote:
I did purchase a ShinyBox, and it is excellent.

GJ

Hi Greg, which Shiny Box model do you have, and what are your favorite applications for it?

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 7:23 am

ceylon wrote:how do i dampen the mxl body properly?

what exactly is the procedure and cost for a PE (premium electrnics?) upgrade on an mxl? how good can it get? yeah, that is a harsh mic.

This may sound strange, but it works well. I just use those wide, thick rubber bands they use at the grocery store to group stems of broccoli together. You just need like 3 of them. They fit nice and snug around the outside of the body cavity. Is it pretty?..no. But it dampens that crappy body resonance.

Michael Joly does a premium electronics upgrade for like $199, and if you add his headbasket mod it bumps the price upt $249. But for a hard quote you'd have to contact him at oktavamod.com The PE mod smooths out the signal dramatically. I sent him one of my mk012's and it came back sounding just as smooth as butter.

Corey Y · Post by **Corey Y** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:37 pm

I've owned a pair of Fathead II's and a pair of Shinybox 46MXC's and I prefer the Shinybox and ended up selling the Fatheads. Comparatively the Fatheads sounded a little more muddy/stuffy to my ears. They're both good though, in my opinion. I've used both for drum overheads (or for a mono OH or decoded stereo with one mic) and room mics for drums and quite liked both for that application. I've also used both for guitar quite a bit with good results, though usually along with a dynamic on the same source.

Another plus for Shinybox is that the owner Jon is a great guy and he will bend over backwards to keep customers happy.

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:35 pm

Hey P/E,

I bought the original 46MX (used) just this year, and it's very nice on vocals, when you want that ribbon quality. As expected, needs a lot of pre-amp gain though.

GJ

Mixwell · Post by **Mixwell** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:26 pm

The Shinybox iterations are wonderful. Love the 46U. Check out the Si4, four channel preamp that Jon makes. It features switchable input loading( 1.4k and 8.1k). The preamp has plenty of clean low noise gain/headroom already, [72 db in 6 db steps] but this feature really helps those ribbons sound the best they can.

Producer/Engineer · Post by **Producer/Engineer** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:01 am

Mixwell wrote:The Shinybox iterations are wonderful. Love the 46U. Check out the Si4, four channel preamp that Jon makes. It features switchable input loading( 1.4k and 8.1k). The preamp has plenty of clean low noise gain/headroom already, [72 db in 6 db steps] but this feature really helps those ribbons sound the best they can.

Welcome Adam Brass ! It's good to see you here and a definite plus for the forum! Thanks for joining us.

heroalligator · Post by **heroalligator** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:09 pm

Hi there:

I work with Stephen Sank, modding ribbon mics. Most of the modern $100-300-ish Chinese mics (Nady, Cascade, Apex, etc) have one of just a few different ribbon motor designs, which take well to either RCA 44bx style ribbons or a slightly less wide, shorter ribbon with the same corrugation profile as the 44bx.

Replace the ribbon and the transformer, possibly add a little phantom powered J-FET circuit into the mix for extra output, and you have a world-class ribbon mic.

PM or email me at fenikner at gmail.com if you'd like to know more.

Rob Coates · Post by **Rob Coates** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:20 am

I've got one of the original Fatheads and recently picked up a Cascade Victor (long ribbon). I was very surprised at how much brighter and detailed the Victor is compared to the Fathead. The Victor is a monster however. I've never seen or used any other mic that big.

junomat · Post by **junomat** » Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:56 pm

Not sure how much Oktava 52's go for, but they are great. More articulation than my Fatheads. I do love my Fatheads...

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Cascade vs. Shinybox

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