What price for <semi old> Neumann KM85's

[Mickstape]

I have been offered an opportunity to purchase four of these pencil condensers for what seems to be a ridiculously low price, the sale is legit ie:not a fire sale or stolen<to the best of my knowledge> and the mic's are in working condition, the vendor is a muso and ex broadcast tech.

one matched pair and two unmatched, as mentioned the price is for a package deal and is under 1K. Apparently they are from the late 80's.

Now i am always wary of good gear going for cheap, although in this forum that seems to be the norm. As i have been super keen to own any type of neumann since i started taking this stuff seriously i'm wondering if its too good to be true. I'm desperately trying to convince the better half to let me have one last splurge before starting the savings<spendings> again.

Please convince either me or her.

[mylesgm]

buy them or let me buy them instead! I need another or a pair or all four...

[rick]

4 x km 85 for under $1000 ?
or 1000 each ?
if they are 4 for under $1000 and they are not stolen , why are you on still the internet?

i will buy them off you for $500 each right now !

[mick_e]

If its for real do it, or let me buy a pair with myles!

[Mickstape]

ok the missus is convinced, i was convinced from the get go. Yes the price is correct.

yeah according to old mate they were legitimately purchased from one of those auctions that only you seem to know about before everyone else Rick.

Unfortunately they will not be for sale, well not until i have found out what they sound like.

I will post pics as soon as my grubby little fingers are on them. Hopefully by this time next week.

[rick]

err i mean nah mate those old mics are no good ...
leave where they are , more trouble then they are worth , you want km 84 not km 85

not worth anything because they are so small ,
you can barely find them in mic drawer they are so small so you would never use them
etc etc




buy used neumanns if they are cheap ... where ever, when ever you find them
they are just about all fixable and worth restoring
mostly they dont need restoring

these are cheap :)

[waitup]

Good thing I sold my compressor before you blew the budget on it Mick!

[rick]

ok now there is a catch
ex auction neumanns ...?

check that we are talking about km 85 NOT km 185

check that they have badges , the ones with out badges are harder to sell and not as pretty
( but i have plenty of badges)
so you can still sell them to me :)

they should have purple badges , not red

then go and buy them tommorrow before he wakes up

if they have red badges then they are cheap and still cool but harder to move on and i dont want them

(its actually about transformers not badges but you need something to worry the wife about right ...?)

[Mickstape]

Just a note, i'm going to purchase these mics, Myles got in first with a PM, so if i decide to let the non matched two go he has first option.

Just offhand, i thought the km84's were the ones that everyone wanted? Old mate was quite adamant that i knew they were the 85's and not the 84's. I told him i didnt care and to bring them in tomorrow so i can make sure they work etc. I'm just hoping that i may have found the proverbial "Shed in Wagga Wagga", if so then if old mate is on a sell-a-thon i will endeavour to let you all know his details so everyone gets a chance to purchase what i don't pillage first.

[Mickstape]

Another thing, he also told me they have a different termination <not xlr> i can't remember the name of the plug he said they have but he said he has a convertor/sex change plug for the two matched ones.

[rick]

84 is what you want ( full range )
the 85 has a bit of a roll off in them but still good to go

84 sell for $1000 all day long and more if your desperate to have find em
85 sell for $700 all day long and get hard to move at $1000 +

err ....prices with badges unmolested and UNENGRAVED with XLR connectors not tuchel
if you have tuchel drop $200 each on the price
IF THEY ARE are dented , ugly or look dodgy you going to end up keeping them yourself which is no problem unless you hate
ugly mics .

but myles only has to pay $500 each so you get a free pair right ?


oh the other thing about the shed in wagga dream mick
is you buy everything in it first ... THEN you tell people about it :)
you seem to have the process the wrong way around !

[Starxi]

I have a pair of these, they are really lovely.
85 capsules have a higher tensioned membrane than the 84, which gives the rolled off bass response, so they possibly aren't as versatile as the 84, but are perfect for close proximity recording.. and excel as drum overheads.. I actually really like mine as vocal mics.. I believe they were originally designed for speech.

Nice score..

[rick]

cardiod is different shape as well

[Mickstape]

err ....prices with badges unmolested and UNENGRAVED with XLR connectors not tuchel
if you have tuchel drop $200 each on the price
IF THEY ARE are dented , ugly or look dodgy you going to end up keeping them yourself which is no problem unless you hate
ugly mics .

but myles only has to pay $500 each so you get a free pair right ?


oh the other thing about the shed in wagga dream mick
is you buy everything in it first ... THEN you tell people about it :)
you seem to have the process the wrong way around !

Tuchel is definitely not the name he mentioned, it was more of the acronym type <XLR/TRS etc>, he did mention Sony... I'll update tomorrow. As for ugly mics, dude i have this old CAD condensor, the thing looks like a hand grenade. Its got character. It's CAD sure enough but f**k it looks cool. As for the free pair well that is definitely the biggest bonus.

I agree with you about the "wagga shed" but to be honest if he has half the gear he was talking about today then the prices would be outta my ballpark, as it is i'm juggling figures & budgets and the way things have been going, with all the great deals on stuff i've been getting both here and elsewhere i'm watching the "spendings" go out the door and can see my finance guy at the bank standing there with the loan application saying "It's ok Mick, just another 10 thou, you'll cover that easy".

Is this the start of that fabled gear addiction i read so often about? I think i kinda got the taste when i scored the neve pre...

And Nick to be honest mate i really wanted that comp, i don't own any seriously decent compressors and that would have had the honour of being the first. But all the same i'm glad you got the sale man.

[norm]

Buy them!!!!!! I have been converting them to km84 when I find the cheap bits and now have 5 km84 at the general cost of two.

[rick]

DIN = mini tuchell = same story

[Mickstape]

DIN = mini tuchell = same story

that sounds like it.

so what does that mean for me? Obviously i need two converters and cables to suit but does having this kind of termination detract from the mics performance? And because it has this connector does it mean them old, like "vintage" old? I'm googlerizing now.

[rick]

hey look the only drag with the din plug is you have to carry around converter plug leads ( to xlr ) which are always bigger then the mics !
and of coarse when you lose one your mics sit in the cupboard unusable untill you find them again ,

i hate the little din connecters and wont buy a mic with one unless its really cheap or rare ,
but really its just a minor day to day hassle , but i have had so many mics in my time that i am just fussy and looking to make my life easier everyday not harder

the other thing is the plugs are more fragile and you have to make sure the connecters are wired properly to get the phantom right and also that they are in phase but thats just par for the coarse

the din thing was a euro tv standard , not sure why

but dont worry about it , if you could see my collection of tuchel plugs ,sockets and connecters just so i never have a mic lead problem you would have to laugh , i have a collection of ancient nos microphone plugs and leads that are worth more then most peoples best microphone !

but it means i can buy just about any mic without thinking , hell where would i get a plug for that ?
and that means buying orphan mics ( no leads or power supply ) is no problem for me which is the way to get em really cheap
so if your mate has orphan mics ... let talk

[mylesgm]

I grabbed a couple of tuchel (3 pin din with locking screw ring) to XLR from german ebay for about 10 bucks each. Really high quality connectors and mogami cable. They work a treat on my mics and I leave them connected to the mics so I never have to look for them.

Angus, I'm sure everybody wants to know and everybody wants in. I'm sure Mick will either buy it all and sell what he doesnt want or put the seller in contact with this site so he can do it himself. Seems like a good plan and then we can all get a bite of the proverbial cherry...

M

[a.beck]

Isn't DIN basically like a Midi lead connector?

I was curious about this also, so I looked it up. :)

A DIN connector is a connector that was originally standardized by the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN), the German national standards organization. There are DIN standards for a large number of different connectors, therefore the term "DIN connector" alone does not unambiguously identify any particular type of connector unless the document number of the relevant DIN standard is added (e.g., "DIN 41524 connector"). In the context of consumer electronics, the term "DIN connector" commonly refers to a member of a family of circular connectors that were initially standardized by DIN for analog audio signals. Some of these connectors have later also been used in analog video applications and for digital interfaces such as MIDI or the IBM PS/2 computer keyboard and mouse cables. The original DIN standards for these connectors are no longer in print and have been replaced with the equivalent international standard IEC 60130-9.

So, yes and no. heh

[heathen]

Was talking to my cousin a few months back and he says "oh yeah my stepdad worked for BBC and ABC for many years" before passing away recently. "Hmmmmm do you have his old audio gear around, any mics and stuff"? I say. He says "yeah there is a couple of boxes of stuff".

By this stage I'm salivating and dreaming of finding pristine U47's, 87's, 251's etc and saying "how much you want for this junk"?.

Anyway I go out to have a look and he brings out these old boxes, by this stage I almost can't breathe. Then I look in the boxes to find this horrible mess of rca cables and other associated junk. Were a few mics in there but no Neumanns and none I recognised except a pair of Coles 4104 ribbons, not much good to me.

Anyway was still worth a look, the chase is half the fun too......... I guess. :(

[TimS]

Mick,
I had 4 x KM85's - I sent them to Gunter who serviced & matched them as a quad set - superb job, however, I sold the closest matched pair on Ebay a while back as I didn't need the second pair afterall. Still have the second pair though. Do a search ion TR for KM85 and there'll be pics somewhere..
I wont say how much I bought them for (not quite as cheap as your deal) but the resale on 85's is not as rapid as 84's - however, there is ALWAYS someone looking for good quality Neumann (just ask Rick) ;-)
Even with the built-in rolloff, they are still awesome mics.

[Chris H]

I find the built in roll off a very handy feature when you want to avoid the build up of low end that can be a prob when multi tracking. I have a consc seriel number matched pair that i use for chior, acoustic instruments, toms and vox. Very handy in the collection.

[Mickstape]

okay so they are the tuchel termination, anyone recommend a good distro for the adaptors, i've only been able to find o/s suppliers, 25 pounds/euro is a fair whack, can i get cheaper without sacrificing quality?

[Sammas]

Maybe this?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 691wt_1139

[Djembe]

Hey Norm, what do you mean by "converting them to km84"?
Do you mean you just looked around for cheap KK84 capsules?
As I understand, that is the only way to convert a KM85 to a KM84.

[rob]

these would be C091A connectors, some people call then DIN, other folks call them tuchel.

there are squillions of connectors that get called DIN or tuchel. Tuchel was a company, they made / make lots of different connectors. DIN is a standard. There are lots of standards.

they are available off the shelf in Australia, at around $20 a pop. So you then just make up an adapter to XLRM.

[Linear]

I've got a pair of KM85's - they are great just as-is.

I know people talk about bottom end rolloff on the km85's - I think it's actually more useful than a km84. they're great because the rolloff isn't in the electronics, but in the capsule design/tensioning.

I have lots of 'full range' SDC's, and I end up rolling the bottom off anyway, so the KM85's are handy indeed. It's funny, I think KM85's have a bad name purely from people looking at the frequency plots (rather than listening/using them in real-world situations.)

just my 2c

Chris

[Chris H]

I've got a pair of KM85's - they are great just as-is.

I know people talk about bottom end rolloff on the km85's - I think it's actually more useful than a km84. they're great because the rolloff isn't in the electronics, but in the capsule design/tensioning.

I have lots of 'full range' SDC's, and I end up rolling the bottom off anyway, so the KM85's are handy indeed. It's funny, I think KM85's have a bad name purely from people looking at the frequency plots (rather than listening/using them in real-world situations.)

just my 2c

Chris

+1

suits me if they keep the bad rep and stay cheaper though
......so last word is they're crap compared to the km84's .....sell em 85's on to me and i will fix em up at great expence and you can save yourself the trouble and hang out for some 84's

[rick]

......so last word is they're crap compared to the km84's .....sell em 85's on to me and i will fix em up at great expence and you can save yourself the trouble and hang out for some 84's

ok its unanimous
mick you have been done over , your wasting you time with cheap km85s sell them as quick as you can to a forum member as fast as you can and pay 4 times as much for a pair of km 84s.

or not :)