Barbo wrote:

flw wrote:this is what a technician of byerdynamic sent me.

"In accordance with older stocklists, from 1985 the M380 would have been built with the existing DT770/990 system having 600 Ohm impedance. Around 1992 the 250 variation of this transformer was incorporated into headphones but whether it also landed in the M380 (without any certainty) I was not able to find out..."

This sounds promising. For the 600 Ohm drivers, I think I'd be tempted to go for a step-down transformer to get a flatter low-end just to do the mic justice.

I had an Opus65 for a very short while. It was buggered in the same way that most M380s will end up. However, for £65 plus some DT770 drivers and possibly a transformer, we could have a bash at making some M380s if it worked out cheap enough.

interesting

i love headphones for mics.

and the Dt770 is a great headphone set
it's the best pair i own anyway

Secret_Bob wrote:So anybody compared the M380 (perfect mic for Squeez box btw) to the Opus thing?

I haven't done a side by side comparison, but I have used both. They're both good, but the Opus 65 is pretty much a fairly normal kick-drum tailored mic, the M380 is a bit more unique...

If you can build one out of 770 drivers then, well, that sounds like a pretty swell idea!

Rodabod wrote:for £65 plus some DT770 drivers and possibly a transformer, we could have a bash at making some M380s if it worked out cheap enough.

Oh lets do!


I'll contribute to the R&D fund.

otisroom wrote:

Rodabod wrote:for £65 plus some DT770 drivers and possibly a transformer, we could have a bash at making some M380s if it worked out cheap enough.

Oh lets do!


I'll contribute to the R&D fund.

seconded.

I opened up my DT770s and M380 this evening. In the top photo you can see that both transducers are very similar (same moulding/size etc).

The M380 does NOT have a transformer but you can see in the 2nd photo that it does have a humbucking coil around the outside. Obviously if you hooked up a pair of DT990/770 headphones to a mic amp you'd probably get a lot of hum unless the transducer was shielded well (ie. for a DIY mic it would need a metal casing).

I thought the reason that they stopped making the M380 was because they ran out of the original transducers (must be the 600R version?). I'm sure the 250R DT770/DT990 transducer would work well though since most dynamic mics are 200R anyhow...

Bigger photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/electricpress/M380

thank you very much for the photos.

What is the consensus on the casing/housing.?

what's the 65quid for?

where on earth will we find DT770/990 drivers?

Beyer are very good for spares- It won't be a problem to get a transducer from them.

As for the housing, DIY. Use anything that's metal and has holes in it. Two tea strainers back to back??! Two hifi speaker tweeter grills back to back? Some shit old mic that's broke... or you could buy an Opus 65 and gut it but then with the cost adding up you might as well hold out for an M380 second hand. The transducer isn't actually that big, the reason the M380 is big is because of the extra humbucking coil and the shockmount assembly.

prints wrote:I opened up my DT770s and M380 this evening. In the top photo you can see that both transducers are very similar (same moulding/size etc).

Cheers. Are you able to measure the diameters of the drivers to see if they are the same? Also, in the DT770 photo, is that the front or rear of the driver that we can see?

sick.bird wrote:this shop still has a few of the discontinued Opus65 for sale but only in the UK as they cannot process international orders. they are NOS and GBP75 is a good price compared to the M380 prices.

Wow, that's not bad. I'm looking for a (really) budget bass cab / kick mic, do you think that's worth going for over, say, a D112?