MXL 603 Capsule Adapter for AKG CK series and Byonet Style

OptimusRhyme · Post by **OptimusRhyme** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:17 pm

I'll have samples of CK1s with my pair of royer-tubed 603s as soon as I get a minute to figure out why my power supply is acting up, haha.

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 8:21 pm

O.K. GREAT !

... what trouble are you having with the PSU ?

OptimusRhyme · Post by **OptimusRhyme** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:50 pm

I think I just wired up something wonky or it might actually be the 6205s in the mics themselves that went bad, I just haven't had the time to take a multimeter to the power supply lately and see where the problem lies. Turning it on and off produces an audible pop but the mic lines themselves produce nothing, no hiss or output at all.

Edit: To clarify, it has nothing to do with your adapters or the AKG capsules. Sorry if there was some confusion, haha.

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:20 pm

Hi All,
I thought I would share some stuff I found/figured out over the last few weeks:

1.) MXL 603s have 3-- thats right THREE different bodys !!! ( Dont worry....all the threads are the same)

One is the original body style with the three tiny little screws that secure the body tube to the connector base
I found a second style - the " MXL 603 Mogami " - and the Body tube on THIS one is BRASS and THREADS on to the connector base... MUCH BETTER!
And yet a third style that is like the second but it does not say "Mogami" and the label or badge is PRINTED on the body tube not embosed or engraved like the first two. ::)

2.) I just finished a Gyraf G9, my first lage project and it KICKS ASS !!! - Thanks Jacob - anyway, I had these PCB mount screw connectors hanging around, and had an Idea.... the perf board I had was the right spacing and the connector fit, and it also fit inside the body tube, I just hot glued it to the perf board ..making a socket for the tube, I used a 5703wb tube and copied the C60, but with the pin combining of the 5840 in this and Royers circuit it makes for a nice tiddy Mod without having to fly the leads over, under and around, you just run the wire from the connector to the terminal pins. - sweet right?

Here is a link to show the differences, I left the one w/ the printed label out because other than that, its no different than the brass threaded one

http://picasaweb.google.com/audiophreee ... directlink

idealfreedistribution · Post by **idealfreedistribution** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:33 pm

That's really cool. Have you built the power supply and tried it out yet?

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:28 pm

Hi,
On the second page of this thread I have a link to some pics of the mods I've done. The PSU for the 603s is in there, I didnt have the output trans when I took the pics. The C60 cicuit is still a cathode follower , but differs slightly from the Royer Mod. It works and sounds great IMO, the 603 I did with the exact Royer Mod, all I had to do was put a resistor inline with the cathode coupling Cap in the PSU, the PSU PCBs I used were the same as the ones for the 2001 Mod.

Thanks

idealfreedistribution · Post by **idealfreedistribution** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:16 am

This might be useless, but I did a comparison of my 603 with the stock capsule and a CK-1. A pretty large difference.

http://www.angelfire.com/ky3/craigorris ... rack_2.mp3
http://www.angelfire.com/ky3/craigorris ... rack_1.mp3

themagicmanmdt · Post by **themagicmanmdt** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:25 pm

wow. nice.

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:54 pm

idealfreedistribution

This might be useless, but I did a comparison of my 603 with the stock cap and a CK-1. A pretty large difference.

Thanks for the post, defiantly NOT useless, what was your signal chain? and what mod did you do?

idealfreedistribution · Post by **idealfreedistribution** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:31 pm

audiophreak wrote:idealfreedistribution
This might be useless, but I did a comparison of my 603 with the stock cap and a CK-1. A pretty large difference.

Thanks for the post, defiantly NOT useless, what was your signal chain? and what mod did you do?

Signal chain was the MXL-->Seventh Circle N72-->UA2192

The mod that was used on the mic in both clips was to replace the capsule to transistor couping capacitor with a polystyrene equivalent, replaced the two .22uF caps with 1uF film, and the two .022 with films.

The bigger film caps let a lot more low end through, if that's what you need.

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:53 pm

I wasn't asking for any particular reason, just interested in what mod was done, (there seems to be many for the 603), as well as the different chains people use and how they feel about them.

I myself do mostly live stuff and really enjoy the sound of the CK1 on my tube modded 603s, I think the CK1 really opens up the sound, and the tube smooths out the top end of the CK1/451 sound and the combination of the tube and output transformer extends the frequency range especially on the low mids and low end.

Thanks for sharing

idealfreedistribution · Post by **idealfreedistribution** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:26 pm

I really wish I had the guts to try the tube mod, but I'm afraid I'd totally screw things up. Your build looked great!

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:07 pm

Thanks !

I don't think I'm too far off base by saying that if you have already de-soldered and replaced caps... you could certainly do the tube mod, the most expensive part is output transformer ( about $65.00 ) and the PSU enclosure ( typically $12.00 - $24.00 ) I think in the first few pages of this thread, I have a link to the original Royer article that has the schematics, a very simple circuit. I am by no means an expert, still very new to this stuff, but if you research well and take your time, look at pics of other peoples builds, it all kinda comes together.

I'm sure a lot of people here, including myself, would help if you got stuck. I'll have to check,but I could post the BOM from my build so you could check on pricing if your interested.

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:31 pm

danatkorg - shipped today.

THANKS !

audiophreak · Post by **audiophreak** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:05 am

My brother-inlaw lost his job at the machine shop several months ago, there was a long running job that used the same material and we could get 3 capsule adapters out of the left over rod end per run, so I had no material cost, thats why I was able to offer the adapters so cheep, cause they didnt cost me too much to make. He got another job at another machine shop but cant make them for what he used to.
I had him make me a small batch of twenty but the price per adapter is almost double at $68.00 and still includes shipping, so a pair would be $136.00 shipping included.

Thanks for all your support,
Chip

I also edited the first post

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MXL 603 Capsule Adapter for AKG CK series and Byonet Style

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