In the meantime, here's some more crap I bought.

Sony C-38Bs. I have a third, which became a capsule donor for one of these. Both working great now. Third is real beat up and didn't work even with a good capsule
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Aiwa VM-16s One has a "TBC" badge, which, I don't know what means. Something Broadcast Co. maybe. I dunno. I have a third on the way branded Victor. These are a higher spec version of the VM-15, and have a 3 position low cut switch and bigger transformer (I'm told)
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Roland Space Echo's (Pronounced Spuh-Check-Oh) RE 150 is squeaky clean and works great. it's the budget model. The RE 101 could use a good cleaning and a new tape loop. It works, except for mode 3 and has some tape-wow going on at low speeds (though inconsistently) seems to go away once it's been running for a bit.
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Sony C-55AC. 9V battery version of C-55P. I've got 3 more on the way, one of which is a C-55A which appears to be the same thing with an attached cable.
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Yamaha MZ 105 BE. Beryllium diaphragm Dynamics. Good snare mics according to Mike at Russian Recording. For recording a kit with 5 snares, obviously.
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Just wanted to say this is crazy how much nice gear you're able to get. It seems like (in addition to all the other international purchase hassles) you really have to be willing to do tech work and accept that some pieces become donors, but I assume it's been rewarding?

twelvepoint wrote: Fri Apr 25, 2025 11:27 am Just wanted to say this is crazy how much nice gear you're able to get. It seems like (in addition to all the other international purchase hassles) you really have to be willing to do tech work and accept that some pieces become donors, but I assume it's been rewarding?

Yeah, I mean, my MO is kinda just buy broken and fix it 'cause I probably won't be able to afford a new one. That said, broken often describes the previous owner more than the hardware. Being a cheapskate can get expensive, but so far with this adventure, I've had way more hits than misses. With one exception, all the ribbon mics I've bought this way actually work. They could stand to have fresh ribbons, but for the prices I've paid, it's still a deal to pay for them to be serviced. I also have a lot of down time at my day job where nobody cares so I try to use that time to fix shit, solder cables, and other time consuming stuff. Even with the high shipping costs, each of those space echos was under $500. One may end up getting flipped to cover the excessive spending of late.

Misses include:
-A pair of Counterfeit KM184s
-An Aiwa VM-17S that's basically just a shell
-Gefell with a bad capsule (cost of mic+cost of capsule= may as well have bought a brand new one)
-One bad Sony C-38B, which, is only kind of a miss because it became a donor to fix another and to replace the capsule mount strap in one of the C-37P's

thecr4ne wrote: Fri Apr 25, 2025 6:17 pm Even with the high shipping costs, each of those space echos was under $500.

That's a really good price.

Fucking tariffs.
zenmarket will no longer allow parcels valued over $800USD via EMS. EMS pricing is not very cost effective to ship mics 2 or 3 at a time. Awaiting a quote for ~2 week airmail. If that's just as bad I'm gonna have to do some math to see whether shipping things separately or paying tariffs on everything is the bigger loss.

This is still pretty kickass.
At some point you must be weighing the cost of flying over and bringing 'em back in your luggage.

Bubber wrote: Mon May 19, 2025 9:23 am This is still pretty kickass.
At some point you must be weighing the cost of flying over and bringing 'em back in your luggage.

I was able to split things into parcels under the $800 USD tarrif threshold, and ship them with the Zenmarket Express Standard shipping, which ended up getting the shipping cost down a bit to a point comparable to shipping a bunch of stuff together with EMS.

My first parcel over that threshold just shipped. It's got a pair of C500's and a C48. We'll see what happens when it hits customs.

Today's delivery was a pair of Sony C500R's and a Sony C48. pics down below.
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C500R's were listed as having very low output. Tested both, one sounds fine output seems reasonable strong, the other has a lower output. I understand these have an internal DC-DC converter that's basically an un-serviceable black-box. Hoping that's not the issue, but we'll see.
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C48 Seems to only work as cardioid regardless of selected polar pattern. M/V low-cut switch and 0/-10 pad switch appear to be reversed. The physical switches have little indicators that are visible through a little window on the back. They each do what they're supposed to, as labeled on the body, but the indicator pieces are swapped, which suggest someone's opened it up at some point. Hopefully the polar pattern issue is something simple like a bad connection to the rear capsule membrane.
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Logistically, I was worried about this as each of these mics was over the $800 USD tariff threshold (barely) so when I ordered the parcel, I added a note requesting that the supporting documentation clearly state that the items are used, as indicated by the auction listings. They accommodated and it got to me without me having to deal with any customs nonsense. Shipping was a bit pricy, but I'm assuming that factors in the included insurance based on the sale prices. I'm calling this a win.
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Pics
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Sony C48 .
2x Sony C500R's

I've been having problems with my bids getting cancelled on shit.

I’m still working on selling a bunch of stuff to break even 6 channels of Spectra mic amps and compressors (and this fucking PLUMBER), but what’s the going rate for a zenmarket Sony 38(b) that I can be pretty confident in the condition of?