Grundig sold the MD21 under their own name. The MD21 was THE microphone for reporters, most robust and almost immune against wind noise. Yours is a very early version with the flat grill. My oldest Sennheiser Catalog is from 1968, and there is already the newer version in it, with a protruding grill that has the company logo on it. The original stand for it is the MTZ 21. There was also a windshield MZW 22
The Stand is from a Grundig 1954 MD21 in Gold. My Father bought it in this Year. The later GDM 121 has the Transformer from the Jack put into the Mikrofon-Body. Both Mikros have the same Capsule from Sennheiser. Therefore the GDM 121 is Unsymmetric an the MD21 Symmetric. Grundig needs for his Tube Reel to Reel a High ohmic Mikro
I ve been a subscriber for some time now and i like your restorations but most of all i like your way of showing mistakes and misjudgements you made things that most people will hide.That for me shows great character. Fine job.
Excellent tutorial M.C ! ..... Thank you. I bought a MD21 not that long ago & you have provided me with several helpful impedance tips, etc. Ha, ha, - don't worry about the mishap during your video - we've all done that one ! ..... My usual - is to forget to thread the component sleeve onto the cable before soldering. Best wishes from South Australia.
The MD21 is a great mic! I had the pleasure to work with it a few years ago. Never owned one unfortunately. Thanks for your videos this year. And a happy new year to you!
Wow! Never seen anything like that and I have seen, used, and repurposed many mics for ham gear. Nice to hear you still use imperial units for the length of the cable. Happy new year.
Happy New Year from Canada ! Not to worry about that little mix up. If I had all that Madeira wine in my cellar, i would be dusting off a few bottles for the New Year !
That’s the spirit! The trick is to keep the cellar stocked but not unvisited, so Madeira wine definitely plays a role this time of year. Happy new year
All this old stuff and its weird connectors.... I hate to think how many proprietary connectors we would have to keep for all of them. Happy New Year Manuel, I hope 2020 is good for you and I look forward to the content for the future.
Hey :) Those MD21 have been very popular for journalists / outdoor interviews with our german broadcast companies back in the 60s and 70s, as they are omni directional mics, and for this reason they are less sensitive to wind noises, compared to directional (pressure gradient) microphones. I'm happy to see, that you left the mic with it`s original Tuchel connector - building a special cable (like you did) imho is the better option, as long as you don't have the original conversion parts by Sennheiser, that would turn such a microphone into a MD21-U (the "U"-Versions are always with XLR-connector). By the way, I still use two different mics in my own studio, that are equipped with the large Tuchel connector (it's a bigger and very robust version): One MD21 and one MD421 - both are nice, old Sennheisers. I use the 421 regularly, this is a great microphone (the 441 is still better, though). All those vintage Sennheiser mics have been very underrated back in the 80s and 90s (I remember, when I was in school, nearly every school-pa-system provided a few of those mics, but it had to be a SM-58, if you were performing with your school-band... Those crappy old Sennheisers were "uncool" stuff... Today, those mics became very sought-after, especially the original 421 & 441... - because they simply are very good! One more tip (we call it Eselsbrücke = Donkey-bridge) about the XLR connectors: Always think about making love: the male pin goes into the female hole - and the signals flows the same direction as that glibbery white stuff does... ;) 🤭 Now you will never ever forget again 😂
I think a lot of “old” devices were thrown out to be replaced by “new” ones, which were actually crappier. Fortunately quite a few of these treasures can still be found, and will last a lifetime if treated well. The image you’ve created in my brain regarding the signal flow will forever stay with me 😊 thanks 😊
I got the Grundig GDM 121 today for free with the original box, it has a fixed cable and as far as i read it's not an XLR connector. Is there a way to connect this to a computer without destroying the original cable? Like an adapter or something? Sorry, i am a beginner in these things. Thx in advance.
@@electronicsoldandnew So the only possibility would b to change components inside the microphone. Is that something you would do, i mean because of originality? Because like it is, you can't really use it for anything i guess.. But thx a lot for the answer Edit: i even have the original box
Happy New Year. Love your channel. I rebuild tube guitar amps and audio live sound reinforcement gear, studio gear. Great video. Thanks to you and a few others I’ve got the tube radio restoration bug. 😎😎 Congrats on your new Brymen meters, I own 4 of them. My favorite meters. Watch Joe Smiths channel on meter testing. He likes his BM869S better than anything else. That guy does the most complex, in depth, unbiased tests on DMMs on CZcams. Makes some amazing test instruments to do it. His EE chops are in that rarefied air along with W2aew, Mr. Carlson’s Lab.
Electronics Old and New by M Caldeira I was amazed when Joe found so many flaws in the Gossen meter. The high end price of those you’d think they would be second to none, not after Joe’s tests. Susceptible to EMF interference because of poor shielding and magnetic interference such as a hanger magnet can switch relays putting it in a dangerous situation giving a false reading of low or no voltage potential when actually it was probing high voltage. His latest tests proved similar flaws in the EEV Blog 121 GW meter, Dave should have tried to hook up with Brymen over UEI. Meter has been plagued with issues since day one. My first Brymen was the EEV Blog BM 235, just a blue boot over the Brymen red with the EEV name, but a great little meter. Fluke and Brymen were always the top winners in Joe’s tests. I actually found a pristine old Fluke 189 after Joe ran one through the gauntlet. I changed out the leaky super cap used for data logging memory as Joe suggested. What I love about the Brymen meters is they recall the last setting you used on power up, great feature that the Fluke meter doesn’t share. I bought my 869s and 525s from TME in Poland. Had them in 3 days to the states for $7 shipping. I can’t get things shipped that fast and cheap from a few states away.
"...but when you´re an addict, you´re an addict…" Hope you stay an addict as long as possible and don´t do any rehab! Wishing you a happy, healthy New Year.
LOLLLLL When I was reading the "Can you spot the mistake" I was looking at your soldering and couldn't see anything off. But then when you turned it at 12:05 I was like: Dude! You soldered on the female plug :D :D :D
But it takes having the appropriate cable first to know if it works. Interesting and balanced to unbalanced din cable. I believe Din connectors are unbalanced so getting that little converter in there is amazing. Generally you wanna have pin 2 positive when a signal pushes in on the diaphragm. Although there was a bit of a standard conflict with the UK for a while as they decided on pin 3 positive until everybody just finally decided that Pin 2 was to be the Hot Signal. That microphone is in great condition, And it's always nice to leave the original cables original. There was also some weird standards for a while where male - male or female - female was common for connections.
To test if the mic capsule is okay you can connect a multimeter on two of the pins, put the multimeter on mv and then make a noise into the capsule. If you get a spike in voltage, the capsule should be fine. If you have an oscilloscope, you can also test using the most sensitive setting. You can use the hold function to see which way the waveform is starts in order to know the polarity of the capsule.
Happy New Year to you and the family, including El Gato. I looked up some vintage Telefunken mics. and can't believe the prices. Some have a valve inside and plug into a power supply. Wonder if they sound as good as they cost. Thanks for all of your videos.
I own the Grundig version of this microphone. The only difference between the Grundig and the Sennheiser was that the Grundig had a fixed wire attached. Now I am horrible at soldering, so a friend cut off the Tuchel and soldered on a male Neutrik XLR plug. It wasn't working perfectly, so I opened it up again, and isolated the individual wires a bit better. I am getting a pretty decent signal now but there seems to be a grounding issue. Unless I put my finger on the male end that is plugged into my interface, I am experiencing some pretty intense buzzing. I didn't quite get what exactly you did with yours to avoid this. Did my friend, who soldered it, get the routing wrong? Do you have to wire any of the pins to the shield? Hope you know the answer to my problem. Thank you anyways for this video. Cheers and greetings from Germany :)
That buzz is usually a grounding issue. The shield may need to be connected to the ground pin of the XLR. Try it with a piece of wire and see if it makes a difference. If it does, then solder it in permanently.
Hey :) I've got myself a old Telefunken TD 20 TS and it has a old Din/Tuchel kabel as well. Inside of it are 3 cables. A White one a orange one, the both go to the sam slug and the ground wire goes to the middle position. The third slug has a tiny tiny little wire going to the slug with the orange and white one. How can I convert it to a normal XLR? I'd be thankful for any tips. Greetings, and very interesting video
i have an old AEG ELA m300 microphone that missing a connector and i’d love to get it working by attaching an xlr connector to it...any suggestions greatly appreciated...here is a link to what the mic looks like www.radiomuseum.org/r/telefunken_ela_m300.html
Grundig sold the MD21 under their own name. The MD21 was THE microphone for reporters, most robust and almost immune against wind noise. Yours is a very early version with the flat grill. My oldest Sennheiser Catalog is from 1968, and there is already the newer version in it, with a protruding grill that has the company logo on it. The original stand for it is the MTZ 21. There was also a windshield MZW 22
Thanks for the info. I actually had no idea that it was as old as that.
The stand is from a 1958 Grundig
GDM-121. Sennheiser made this microphones for Grundig and they are identical to the MD 21. They was simple debranded.
The Stand is from a Grundig 1954 MD21 in Gold. My Father bought it in this Year. The later GDM 121 has the Transformer from the Jack put into the Mikrofon-Body. Both Mikros have the same Capsule from Sennheiser. Therefore the GDM 121 is Unsymmetric an the MD21 Symmetric. Grundig needs for his Tube Reel to Reel a High ohmic Mikro
I ve been a subscriber for some time now and i like your restorations but most of all i like your way of showing mistakes and misjudgements you made things that most people will hide.That for me shows great character.
Fine job.
They say you’re smart if you learn from your mistakes, and a genius if you learn from mistakes of others. I like to contribute to making geniuses 😊
Excellent tutorial M.C ! ..... Thank you.
I bought a MD21 not that long ago & you have provided me with several helpful impedance tips, etc.
Ha, ha, - don't worry about the mishap during your video - we've all done that one ! ..... My usual - is to forget to thread the component sleeve onto the cable before soldering. Best wishes from South Australia.
I like my videos done in one take, so mishaps are par for the course 😊
The MD21 is a great mic! I had the pleasure to work with it a few years ago. Never owned one unfortunately. Thanks for your videos this year. And a happy new year to you!
My pleasure. Happy new year
Wow! Never seen anything like that and I have seen, used, and repurposed many mics for ham gear. Nice to hear you still use imperial units for the length of the cable. Happy new year.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year from Canada ! Not to worry about that little mix up. If I had all that Madeira wine in my cellar, i would be dusting off a few bottles for the New Year !
That’s the spirit! The trick is to keep the cellar stocked but not unvisited, so Madeira wine definitely plays a role this time of year. Happy new year
All this old stuff and its weird connectors.... I hate to think how many proprietary connectors we would have to keep for all of them. Happy New Year Manuel, I hope 2020 is good for you and I look forward to the content for the future.
Thanks George. Happy new year.
happy new year to you , thanks for all your videos in 2019 , i hope some videos come in 2020 .
greets
Uli
I’m sure some will :)
Happy new year to you.
Hey :) Those MD21 have been very popular for journalists / outdoor interviews with our german broadcast companies back in the 60s and 70s, as they are omni directional mics, and for this reason they are less sensitive to wind noises, compared to directional (pressure gradient) microphones.
I'm happy to see, that you left the mic with it`s original Tuchel connector - building a special cable (like you did) imho is the better option, as long as you don't have the original conversion parts by Sennheiser, that would turn such a microphone into a MD21-U (the "U"-Versions are always with XLR-connector).
By the way, I still use two different mics in my own studio, that are equipped with the large Tuchel connector (it's a bigger and very robust version): One MD21 and one MD421 - both are nice, old Sennheisers. I use the 421 regularly, this is a great microphone (the 441 is still better, though).
All those vintage Sennheiser mics have been very underrated back in the 80s and 90s (I remember, when I was in school, nearly every school-pa-system provided a few of those mics, but it had to be a SM-58, if you were performing with your school-band... Those crappy old Sennheisers were "uncool" stuff... Today, those mics became very sought-after, especially the original 421 & 441... - because they simply are very good!
One more tip (we call it Eselsbrücke = Donkey-bridge) about the XLR connectors: Always think about making love: the male pin goes into the female hole - and the signals flows the same direction as that glibbery white stuff does... ;) 🤭 Now you will never ever forget again 😂
I think a lot of “old” devices were thrown out to be replaced by “new” ones, which were actually crappier. Fortunately quite a few of these treasures can still be found, and will last a lifetime if treated well.
The image you’ve created in my brain regarding the signal flow will forever stay with me 😊 thanks 😊
I got the Grundig GDM 121 today for free with the original box, it has a fixed cable and as far as i read it's not an XLR connector. Is there a way to connect this to a computer without destroying the original cable? Like an adapter or something? Sorry, i am a beginner in these things. Thx in advance.
I don’t believe you can because it will have to go into a buffer of some sorts
@@electronicsoldandnew So the only possibility would b to change components inside the microphone. Is that something you would do, i mean because of originality? Because like it is, you can't really use it for anything i guess.. But thx a lot for the answer
Edit: i even have the original box
I only do this as a hobby, and have my hands full 😊 If In were you I’d keep it original.
Happy New Year. Love your channel. I rebuild tube guitar amps and audio live sound reinforcement gear, studio gear. Great video. Thanks to you and a few others I’ve got the tube radio restoration bug. 😎😎 Congrats on your new Brymen meters, I own 4 of them. My favorite meters. Watch Joe Smiths channel on meter testing. He likes his BM869S better than anything else. That guy does the most complex, in depth, unbiased tests on DMMs on CZcams. Makes some amazing test instruments to do it. His EE chops are in that rarefied air along with W2aew, Mr. Carlson’s Lab.
Happy new year. I’ve seen his reviews. Quite amazing.
Electronics Old and New by M Caldeira I was amazed when Joe found so many flaws in the Gossen meter. The high end price of those you’d think they would be second to none, not after Joe’s tests. Susceptible to EMF interference because of poor shielding and magnetic interference such as a hanger magnet can switch relays putting it in a dangerous situation giving a false reading of low or no voltage potential when actually it was probing high voltage. His latest tests proved similar flaws in the EEV Blog 121 GW meter, Dave should have tried to hook up with Brymen over UEI. Meter has been plagued with issues since day one. My first Brymen was the EEV Blog BM 235, just a blue boot over the Brymen red with the EEV name, but a great little meter. Fluke and Brymen were always the top winners in Joe’s tests. I actually found a pristine old Fluke 189 after Joe ran one through the gauntlet. I changed out the leaky super cap used for data logging memory as Joe suggested. What I love about the Brymen meters is they recall the last setting you used on power up, great feature that the Fluke meter doesn’t share. I bought my 869s and 525s from TME in Poland. Had them in 3 days to the states for $7 shipping. I can’t get things shipped that fast and cheap from a few states away.
Have a happy new year, thanks for all the content in 2019.
Cheers,
Happy new year to you and yours. Thanks for your support.
All all good to you and your family. Hope for a new interesting year 2020.
Thank you Alfred. Happy new year to you too.
"...but when you´re an addict, you´re an addict…" Hope you stay an addict as long as possible and don´t do any rehab!
Wishing you a happy, healthy New Year.
Don’t worry. This habit is here to stay :)
Happy new year
Microphones are like shoes to my girlfriend! definitely appreciate what your doing
I understand you perfectly. My wife is the same ...
LOLLLLL When I was reading the "Can you spot the mistake" I was looking at your soldering and couldn't see anything off. But then when you turned it at 12:05 I was like: Dude! You soldered on the female plug :D :D :D
👍
Happy New Year Manuel!! I really enjoy your videos. I have learned a great deal from you. Thank you!
My pleasure. Happy new year to you too.
Happy New Year ... Somerset UK
Thanks. Happy new year to you too.
But it takes having the appropriate cable first to know if it works. Interesting and balanced to unbalanced din cable. I believe Din connectors are unbalanced so getting that little converter in there is amazing. Generally you wanna have pin 2 positive when a signal pushes in on the diaphragm. Although there was a bit of a standard conflict with the UK for a while as they decided on pin 3 positive until everybody just finally decided that Pin 2 was to be the Hot Signal. That microphone is in great condition, And it's always nice to leave the original cables original. There was also some weird standards for a while where male - male or female - female was common for connections.
👍
Happy New Year From Northern Ohio, Manuel!
Thanks you. Happy new year to you too.
To test if the mic capsule is okay you can connect a multimeter on two of the pins, put the multimeter on mv and then make a noise into the capsule. If you get a spike in voltage, the capsule should be fine. If you have an oscilloscope, you can also test using the most sensitive setting. You can use the hold function to see which way the waveform is starts in order to know the polarity of the capsule.
👍
Happy New Year to you and the family, including El Gato. I looked up some vintage Telefunken mics. and can't believe the prices. Some have a valve inside and plug into a power supply. Wonder if they sound as good as they cost. Thanks for all of your videos.
Happy new year to you too. The ones with the tube sound great, but are really cumbersome.
Happy new year!
Thanks. Happy new year to you too
Um Bom Ano Novo, cheio de saúde.
Obrigado. Bom ano.
14:22 the mic sound (it is ambient only, instead of direct to what we hear)
15:49 (semi direct. Semi?! Yes, here is the explanation: 14:53)
That was funny 😂
ut is a grundig, btw
I own the Grundig version of this microphone. The only difference between the Grundig and the Sennheiser was that the Grundig had a fixed wire attached. Now I am horrible at soldering, so a friend cut off the Tuchel and soldered on a male Neutrik XLR plug. It wasn't working perfectly, so I opened it up again, and isolated the individual wires a bit better. I am getting a pretty decent signal now but there seems to be a grounding issue. Unless I put my finger on the male end that is plugged into my interface, I am experiencing some pretty intense buzzing. I didn't quite get what exactly you did with yours to avoid this. Did my friend, who soldered it, get the routing wrong? Do you have to wire any of the pins to the shield? Hope you know the answer to my problem. Thank you anyways for this video. Cheers and greetings from Germany :)
That buzz is usually a grounding issue. The shield may need to be connected to the ground pin of the XLR. Try it with a piece of wire and see if it makes a difference. If it does, then solder it in permanently.
@@electronicsoldandnew thank you so much!
false facts, I have a Grundig Version without fixed cable and its original.
12:23 😀
It happens 😊
Hey :) I've got myself a old Telefunken TD 20 TS and it has a old Din/Tuchel kabel as well. Inside of it are 3 cables. A White one a orange one, the both go to the sam slug and the ground wire goes to the middle position. The third slug has a tiny tiny little wire going to the slug with the orange and white one. How can I convert it to a normal XLR?
I'd be thankful for any tips.
Greetings, and very interesting video
12:19 ahahahahahahahahha
Grundig sold this mic under the model number GDM 121
👍
i have an old AEG ELA m300 microphone that missing a connector and i’d love to get it working by attaching an xlr connector to it...any suggestions greatly appreciated...here is a link to what the mic looks like www.radiomuseum.org/r/telefunken_ela_m300.html
Would you have any Brüel & Kjær analysis microphones?
Unfortunately not.
I have a beyer microphone with a tuchel, but there is a shielding that is soldered to the ground or something. How do I convert this to xlr?
Check out the video carefully, and try a few experiments. I’m afraid I can’t help you from a distance.
I think I'm getting the bug.
😊