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- Опубліковано 8 кві 2019
- Teardown Tuesday
Dave's Samson C01U USB Microphone got caught up in the flood, let's take a look inside.
Podsweat: • eevBLAB #50 - Great Id...
Doug Ford microphone design series: • EEVBlog Microphone Series
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For the record, I used one of these in a XLR version on stage as a guitar amp mic for over a decade. Fairly convinced it drank more beer than anyone on the stage. I won it in a contest, bought a second for cheaper than a SM57. My big beef was the bright blue LED, gaffer tape fixed that.
To this day, still my go-to guitar cab mic.
We ran a LOUD show, REALLY loud, full-on touring PA in a small club. It responded well, sounded great. Best 75 bucks for a pair of guitar mics ever spent.
Plot twist, Dave actually has a very deep bass voice, and the higher pitch is just his the microphone he is using.
"XLR and the pre amp rubish"
Sound elites : TRIGERED
I love the Samson C01. I have the C01 XLR version and still use it for almost all of my videos and streams.
nice! i bought one of these like 9 years ago and its still in use every day. great mic!
Been using a C01U Pro for almost 5 years now, looking to finally pull it apart and clean the foam for the partial time I didn't have a windscreen over it. Looks pretty easy, Thanks!
Oy, external amp and XLR cables aren't rubbish, mate! ;).
some people love latency xddddd
Maybe other rules apply when you are upside down?
Oh cool to see you here love your music!
@Robert Slackware Maybe you should open an interface and look how they generate Phantom power. I don't thing it's really about the preamp at all.
@Robert Slackware Not sure if I'll be answering your question but I can tell you that phantom power is to provide electrical current to the audio signal, but is just voltage, I mean it doesn't do anything with the audio signal itself though its purpose is to amplify the signal that the delicate and extremely sensitive mechanism of the condenser microphone produces which is a very low signal and because you are working with sound the need to preamp the signal as close of its source as possible is key to avoid noise contamination, also, and probably more important is the function is that condenser microphones require a voltage for polarizing the microphone’s transducer element. ...something like that, not sure if I'm covering it all or even being accurate enough at an engeenering level, but something like that is what it does.
Many times you can use a simple phantom power device that even works with a 9dc battery or 12v dc power supply, it really doesn't affect the sound quality of the signal at all.For amplifiers to work with condenser microphones you should normally use a console that can provide phantom power to the mic lines, every single console mixer in the market does so.
Regards!
Interesting electret design, thanks!
Great tear-down vid Dave... 10/10
Thank You !
Great video with a very clear soundtrack, I just wanted to find out if I should talk into the end all to the front of my microphone, so this teardown is really useful. Thank you
Nice teardown video Dave!
i have that same mic nice to see whats on the inside
Bring Doug in for more videos! Love when you two tag team a topic
I'VE had mine from Xmas 2008 or 2009, excellent for that era of youtube!
as I am watching this I am looking at my Samson C01U microphone. had it for years.
I did electronics design at Samson for about six years. One of 3 electronics engineers there. I just left a few months ago.
i use a q2u, good mic :)
Hey the Samson honestly is the ONLY mic that works best for my voice, I have tried hundreds of mics up to $2000 , I’m curious to what I can do to the mic
To get the small hiss out of it, like is there a small mod I can change out on the board to achieve that?
@@rylandweet7750 that's because this is a fake mic it's electret not real condenser. The real makes revealed ur real voice that u disliked
@@W0rldViralDaily untrue. I know microphones , there are many electric mics , like a akg c214... there are many
@@rylandweet7750 ELECTRET*
2:37 An even easier way - needle-nose pliers. Tips go into the notches, hold the thing open with the hand in-between the handles, job done.
That's the method I usually use. I have some very fine needle-nose pliers that work great for this.
@@Markus0021 When i had to open up my first AKG Perception 200 (similar construction), i only had one pair of beefy-ish "needle-nose" pliers, and the tips were just the right size.
Good luck using that screwdriver-method if there's any threadlock in there... :P
Meanwhile, quite a few of us are wondering how Dave's workbench doesn't have a pair of snap ring pliers.
@@petersage5157 Because it's Dave's bench, not AvE's bench - easy mistake to make, just one letter difference :D
@@khronscave Sure, Dave doesn't have to remove Jeezless clips on a regular basis, but I don't either, and my snap ring pliers see a lot more use than my needle nose pliers. It's just a better engineered tool.
Electret is great for music, I understand. And probably some of the cheap audio noise meters are using electrets as. Well. When you go to the precision meters, you find there an active bias supply of 200 V DC. An electret membrane is of course plastic. Bruel and Kjaer precision meters have a metal membrane and an incredibly narrow air gap despite the high voltage. They also have a teflon cap that contains desiccant. You have to dry that desiccant every so often. Reminds me that mine is due a visit into an oven again.
If i had to guess its a standard case that's used for phantom powered mics that are typically grounded so they just left that clip in
If the windows glass s cracked its because the structural sill above the window is failing. You should have the wall checked out.
First time see some dual footprint with specific paste mask.
The Audio Technica AT2020 was another first USB mic that works really well.
But I like the Samsons built in headphone jack. That's a good plus.
Only a later revision had the headphone jack
Great review ,just purchased one on ebay,cheers Tony Lopez Band 😏🎸✌️
Lots of stuff. And suddenly a wild David appears!
Well spotted; the pop up version : )
0:28 - I see Dave 2 has got the lift from downstairs working.
HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA
Interesting teardown! Looks like that old Phillips screwdriver has "drilled" a few holes in wallboard (sheetrock).
Just one note for people taking this apart, those sprung clips either side of the chassis ping away very easily. Don't be surprised if you have to put everything down for 5-10 minutes to find out where the hell one of them went.
I use the Samsung Q1U mic for podcasts. This usb mic gives good service!
I believe those springs are for vibration reduction.
JFET the way to go, for Mic Pre's
doin the Rossman. Only part that I'd suspect may be that condenser.
would be great if you could do a build/comparison for the *C01U Pro* and the *C03U*
a puffteenth? Somebody organize an international metric conference please
half a bee's dick
look like a tsb-165 capsule,160mm
19 mm is in the PRO version
Dude are you kidding me? I was talking about this mic with my friend about 2 weeks ago... And then a week later you upload this lol. Would've been cool to see this sooner)
You need to get yourself a face pin spanner. Beautiful bit of packaging.
Time for an ultrasonic cleaner unboxing tbh.
Very good video
I used this mic for music vocals. The noise floor kinda sucks. The AKG perception series is much better for this
Lots of older cheap condenser mics are a bit noisy, actually, and USB ones tend to be even worse (ca. 30 dB(A) SPL vs. ca. 23 dB(A) SPL). A 10 meg bias resistor is on the low side (it is not unusual to find 1 GOhm parts, the reasons being explained in one of the Doug Ford videos), and most of all there's the very modest dynamic range provided by the AK5371 (a typical 84 dB(A) assuming an external preamp circuit is being used, and the 77 dB(A) dynamic range for the 20 dB fixed preamp or the 40 kOhm input impedance for the inverting PGA do not inspire too much confidence in the analog input noise floor either). There is invariably going to be a compromise between level handling and noise floor.
I'd speculate that the IC was originally developed for the more modest needs of small (e.g. 1/4") electret capsules. Its limited dynamic range wouldn't be _nearly_ as much of a problem if there were a good low noise, variable gain preamp stage present in the mic, but there isn't one.
0:28 a wild Dave appears!
I use one of these for making PC repair videos on my main channel. I'm sure there's people who have much more expensive kit that can out perform it, but for a semi-professional mic setup costing less than $100 I don't think it can be beat.
Definitely not, I've had one for about 7 or so years and I still prefer to use it over my $300 Audio-Technica AT4040 mic for ease of use, and the sound quality difference is pretty negligible. It is an excellent microphone for the cost, to be sure
Yep, for the price it's really hard to beat.
I noticed when Dave does review or teardown, in 100% of cases, he calls everything else which is not in the video - rubbish. It reminded my childhood when I used to tell my friends "you're my best friend!" while other friend is not hearing it. Then tell the same thing to other friend while previous friend is not around.
I'm SURE Neuman will get right on that "rubbish" they make. Instantly discrediting himself.
"By half a bee's dick" LMFAO
That is not a 1 inch capsule, it is generic OEM electret capsule stuck into disk to make it look bigger. There are actually capsule patents from AKG and Neumann, quite fascinating stuff!
We have come a long way from when the first modern Condenser microphone with an impedance matching amplifier was invented at what would become Bell Labs in 1917.
There is a popup in this video after 0:28 :-D Nice mic anyway.
*a great mic* 👍👍👍👍👍
Hey! That's the mic I've had for years :o I just modded it to use USB-C, it's a great mic considering how old it is
Nova Fawks Mod for a less durable cable and plug? Why?
Remember, a USB 2 full size cable packs 4 wires in a 3 to 4mm thick cable, while a USB 3.1 C cable packs at least 16 wires into a thinner cable, making each individual signal wire much thinner and more easily broken by ordinary wear. A full digital microphone won't need to go beyond 2Mbit bandwidth, so no use for USB 3+ superspeed etc.
@@johnfrancisdoe1563 I understand that, I could change it easily again if I wanted to, the issue was the connector was already broken I only had an extra USB C female connector lying around and I needed the mic fixed asap. I would have preferred a USB B connector myself
I'm having newer one C01U Pro - it has realtime monitoring headphones output, which can also be used as DAC to listen audio from PC. So I was wondering what DAC is there for the phones
A puzzle to get you thinking:
The wavelength of sound at 1KHz is 340mm.
The capsulse size is 19mm.
How does the capsule achieve a cardioid polar response?
Note the larger baffle around extending beyond the face of the capsule. And note the small holes in the back-side of the plate and the back side of the capsule. Those are all very carefully designed to achieve the polar response. Even 82-cent jelly-bean commodity electret mic capsules use exactly the same method (side and back ports to reduce sensitivity to the side and back.) But most small jelly-bean electret capsules are omni-directional with no side or back vents.
On the ocean a wave may be 200 m from crest to crest. A boat 10 m long will still ride on the crests.
@@therealjammit I'm not sure the analogy matches perfectly with acoustics, but you have me interested now. Can you help me understand exactly what what you mean by riding the crest?
The capsule works beyond just its resonant frequencies
Thank you for this video, I bought a Samson C01U Pro a couple of years ago that from day one frequently refused to connect to and be recognised by my iMac (even though the LED on the mic lit up) and then over time would not connect to my iMac at all and today after watching your video, I took it apart using needle nose pliers to rotate the bottom ring off and the circuit board that connects to the USB B plug had semi disconnected from the 4 pin socket. When I re-seated the circuit board, it now connects every time. Now I know what to do if the problem occurs in the future. Much appreciated 🤩
@June@97 No, but I only record spoken word. I have found that a pre-amp plugin is your friend. I like Analog Obsession preBOX, CHANNEV or MPReq Pultec EQP-1A Equalizer. Also the Reaper reaFIR plugin in subtract mode can be used to remove the high noise floor.
@June@97 I'm using macOS 12.6 on an M1 iMac. I have the Input volume set in System Preferences Sound control panel at 50% and I get -18dB average no problem. As for preamp plugins, if you don't like the stock plugins that come with your DAW, I'd suggest Analog Obsession preBOX as it is free and has several popular preamps (SSL, Neve, Ampex tape, Fairchild) built in.
@June@97 YW. Hope this helps with your gain staging quest 👍😊
00:26 a wild David 2 appeared!
"Let's take apart this USB microphone..."
Sounds good to me!
Better put it back together also before the end of the video ... dont generate more rubbish
LOL I still have the old Black and Yellow Stanley screwdriver set that I got for Christmas when I was 5 years old. Huge mistake giving me that for Christmas let me tall ya. I ripped apart every toy and small electronic device I had. Some of it never made it back together. Got zapped a few times but quickly learned about 110v and hot caps. Those old 110v high torque alarm clock motors will give ya a nice jolt lol.
Aaaah mate. XLR ain't no that serius rubbish. Let me tell ya. A nice preamp and you are set. By the way. We've had some of these Mike capsules seeing decent abuse and they worked perfektly. Dry it up and give a shot.
Did I just hear "Doug Ford" at 6:38? I hope that's not the same Doug Ford we're dealing with in Ontario right now!
Nope, this Doug isn't a spoiled brat bully :)
I really liked the multi-part microphone series of videos. It didn't get as many views as it should have.
Doug DeMuro*
we have enjoyed, well worth its money
Another Doug Ford is my premier. Way better than the last premier.
Buck a beer!
Can you make a Video on how to seal anti-static bags at home?
you should frame that screwdriver. I've got my first meter and screwdriver in a deep frame with edge lighting
You got a meter in there? That must be a t h i c c frame
@@matiastripaldi406 oh aye, it was made for displaying rock samples or something like that
@@Zardox-The-Heretic-Slayer nice!
Any possibility to do some teardown, or mods for cb radio?
I own this mic! Well, not *that* exact one, but the same model. I broke its included stand though :( Fairly quality mic
And all Caps look like Capxon - and fine from far away.
"Good from far, but far from good", eh?
The cheapest crap one can find.
@@dorfschmidt4833 Seems like the Mic is still working perfectly fine after 10 Years, so it can't be that bad. And there are always Cheaper capacitors available as well.
So could we stop with the claim that only Wannabe Japanese Caps are good, wich come out of the same factories as other caps because the way Chinese Industry works?? Because of the Import Tax, it has to be made in China. So only if the device is NOT made in China, the caps can be made elswhere...
Where I got this Information? From a person that works for Corsair.
@Stefan Payne, I didn't think you can go crappier than Capxcon?
Did you ever find out how the water managed to get into the lab?
Good 👍👍
0:28 Surprise!
Looks like some minor water damage on silkscreen area showing C12 & C13 at middle bottom of PCB at 4:57. If you watch any of 'Electronics repair school' youtube videos then a bit of Zippo petrol will sort it :-)
It looks exactly like the behringer c1u
Which exact chip is used there to communicate over USB? Is it that same which has ADCs? It would be great if you could make a video how to make\solder basic USB device to PC... with USB communication basics overview... e.g. make USB device similar to MIC, but having Sin-Wave generator (or white noise generator) on-board instead.
The data sheet at 3:50 says the lone chip does USB I/O and "audio class encoder/decoder" which I'm guessing is being used for ADC, and has the potential for DAC (some USB mics let you plug in headphones, which would use it that way).
Mine always sounded really muffled, maybe it's just my voice lul.
SERIOUSLY!
18 Oscilloscopes!
He's very serious about his oscilloscopes! :D
Dave probably has more multimeters lol.
It is always good to have a spare one in case the first 17 fail.
There was already a hole for them.
Makes me feel bad, I only have 2.
0:27 Oh a penny!
Hey is there a mod I can do on the board to get the hiss down? Either on the xlr or the USB version? This is the only mic to sound amazing on my voice but that hiss the mic gives off makes it not sound as professional
The R20 resistor is 510Mohm, not 10Mohm i guess.
That data sheet ... "Please take case of ESD when you handle the device in this DOCUMENT." 😂
Lol.
Well to be honest, everyone who knows a little bit of (high school) physics and charging yourself, also understands that ESD safety is HEAVILY overrated.
As soon as you discharge yourself and sitting still at a desk, there is no way someone will get enough charge to damage anything.
At my work we just hold the frame of our desk for a bit and continue (and that's with pretty sensitive electronics)
I see lots of Samson mics at my local music store or JB Hifi.
Yes, they are very consumer focused.
it is not true-condenser microphone, polarization voltage is not applied to the capsule, right?
then explain why they put 510M, if there is already a bias resistor inside the jfet?
Given your vast knowledge, do you recommend this microphone for vocal recording for those who don't have much money and want to have fun without being 100% professional?
Hi Dave My Samson CO1 condenser mic accidentally felt and now it does not record vocals but the power works it’s shows the blue light....Just wanted to know if you could assist me if you know how i could fix the problem THANKS
Ah this is the Transound TSB165A capsule as I see ... it's 16.5mm diameter ... "cheapo-whipo" stuff surrounded by the porous plastic material it was used in the 70s for some toy like the small cars for kids and so on.
Good for podcasts and some video VO but not exactly for Studio. Good improvement should be to replace it with a true condenser mic capsule (yes technically this is also a condenser capsule but it's electret and not what I mean). Then ad a DC/C converter to bias it with 70-80VDC. The audio quality will be improved significantly.
Also how come the c01u original has a brass capsule and the c01u pro has a plastic one? Does it make a different ?
Is it USB class compliant? eg driverless plug n play?
I have the Rode NT-USB and it is... kinda, except it's live monitoring implementation kills any possibility for ASIO use, so kinda useless for me
I’ve never had to install any drivers to make use of it, but I haven’t made anything more than just simple use of it so far
Hi i have the same microphone. The problem is that the mic works for 5 seconds when connected then its gain decreases too much. Please help.
So has the landlord got the roof / original cause fixed? Would be great to find out what the cause was.
Everyone keeps asking this, and I've answered it a dozen times now. There was a MASSIVE hail storm that blocked the gutters and the building couldn't handle the volume of backed up water. Shit like this happens, you can't seal building against every eventuality like this. There is no fault, the building meets the code.
Are you sure that's a 10M resistor on the input JFET. Couldn't it be a 510M high voltage low inductance resistor? If it was only 10M the teflon standoff wouldn't be likely to be doing much.
A condenser microphone capsule is a voltage source with an effective impedance of a few tens of pF and needs a pre-amp with an input impedance of at least hundreds of MΩ typically up to a few GΩ.
JZ Microphones is the best
Note that "condenser" used worldwide for this style of acoustic pickup is, in British English and sometimes in the automotive realm, the word for a capacitor.
Yeah capacitor in Swedish is "kondensator" which means condenser. IMO it's sounds fucking dumb, if I speak about electronics and things alike I always use the English terms.
@@sablanex So condenser then? ;P
Sorry but English is such a funny language... It's vocabulary is absolutely huge, it is chock full of contradictions and weirdness, and that's before you start to look beyond British English and start mixing US English, Aus English, SA English or any other localized variant...
@@blahorgaslisk7763 nah capacitor is the way to go. That just makes more sense IMO, a capacitor which has capacitance.
Swedish or any other language besides english shouldn't be allowed when talking about electronic, computers etc basically anything technical lol
Can we purchase a new circuit board?
One does not simply dissect a microphone with out a sound sample!
ua-cam.com/video/4Lh4Re68Ox0/v-deo.html is the sample if I am correct, was linked as he talked about the history of that mic and when he úsed it.
12:40 Well, that may very well be a Transsound capsule - probably the biggest(?) "medium diaphragm" electret capsule OEM.
Interesting. I just assumed that Samson made it.
@@EEVblog Nah, very few mic manufacturers make everything in-house (especially on the lower end of the price range) :P
Even that cast chassis and the grounding springs (in fact, the whole casing) look very similar to Behringer's C1.
If you take the capsule out of its phase correction frame, it has TS stamped on the side of it - bit of a clue there... And it's not a 19mm diaphragm - as near as dammit, it's 15mm. So basically a cheap half-inch electret. The capsule comes out quite easily if you pull the little black ring away, revealing the appalling truth about it. The best thing about these mics is the case.
@@stevegarnett6455 I kinda thought it resembled the TSB-165A, apart from the "specified" diameter. Pretty sure the slightly different hole pattern on the back (4 instead of 8 or however many might fit) is partly how they get the supercardioid pattern.
@@khronscave - could be; it does look very similar indeed to the TSB-165A but the dimensions fit the (non-available now) TSB 160A better. What's even more bizarre is the construction of the C03, which doubles up the whole arrangement so there are two of these assemblies back to back, with the separation between the diaphragms of about 25mm. They claim that by switching between them you can get figure-8, what looks like hypercardioid, and omni responses from it. One day when I want a good laugh, I'll plot the polar responses. I have no great expectations. I only got these to loan to people when they were desperate to borrow a mic - I don't want my good ones damaged and these Samsons really don't matter.
Not denying its a good mic but God was expecting a higher quality board and over all structure, I mean for the price :(
Help me please! My white wire has come off from the microphone, can it be connected with something?
Soldering iron may be?
Shhh! Don’t tell the insurance assessor that your mic still works! Hope he doesn’t watch the EEV Blog!
Just wack it into an ultrasonic and she'll be fine ;D
The great flood of 2019
So, I love my C01U, but what I DON'T love is that in order to be able to access the fade controls, you have to buy a separate program. Sure, it's only 4 bucks, but having to spend extra money just to access a feature that should be core to the microphone itself is an incredibly shit move on Samson's part, and the fact that they didn't just build that properly into the Windows driver speaks volumes.
If an usb mic does not show up on the computer as an input, and say it is the mic is faulty, alltho led lights up and its sound thru the headphones output on the mic.
Where could one start finding out the problem?
Data lines disconnected? USB transceiver chip (inside the mic) shot?
look up the datasheet on the USB IC in your mic and check the supply voltages going to it - always start with voltages
I don't really see why they used a capacitor to reduce the overall capacitance of the board's plane
I dont see a capacitor on the standoff on the signal line. The red component is a 10 megaohm resistor.
thats a SOT23-5 package not SOT23-6 package Dave @ 4:13