Experience with a vintage Sennheiser MD 421N anybody?

    Hey Kemperites!


    I've just literally stumbled on an old Sennheiser MD 421N that they were about to throw out at the institute where I work.
    They just had it lying there in the hallway and would've put it in the garbage if I hadn't asked...
    I have no idea whether it still works, but it seems to be in pretty good contidion. Its one of the old white types and I'd definitely like to give it a try for some recording and, of course", profiling!
    Anyway, I noticed that the connection cable is like a smaller xlr and from what I've been reading online this would be a "klein tuchel", right?
    How can I connect this to my xlr input at my interface? I've seen a couple of adapter cables on ebay here in Germany but I'm not sure if I can just hook it up that way, since the Sennheiser has, to my understanding at least a different cable configuration for hot, cold and ground.
    Anybody around here with any experience in the matter? I'm hoping it makes sense to spend money on trying to get the mike to work, since they have a very good reputation.



    Cheers!


    David

    Hi David,


    there are cables klein-tuchel to XLR like you described. They work pretty good. Bought one last year from the bay. They are already connected the right way. Maybe you can ask the seller if it works with a 421.

    I own one of these, they are awesome.


    It depends on if it is a Klein- or Großtuchel, and if it has a switchable hipass.


    421 N is with Kleintuchel and the switchable hipass, 421-2 has Großtuchel and no hipass.


    I have the one with the großtuchel. I bought it from Lasse, and it already came with a short tuchel to xlr cable. No idea if he soldered it himself or not.
    The ground came off at some point and I was easily able to re-solder it myself via finding a description of the "schematics" online.


    So it should be possible for you to solder an adaptercable, or if you know someone who can do it do it for you.



    Soundwise Sennheißer says that they didn't change anything on the capsule, but the different versions do sound different.
    Here's a comparision
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…=UU6wpljm2qR48aXIRqnXe39Q


    the older ones aren't included in this test, at least from the description, but the last one looks like an older one with a tuchel, and I also don't think they did newer ones in white-ish.
    Older ones seem to have more bite in the hi mids, as well as more hi mids overall.

    Bummer, it seems that my last post was lost in translation due to the Forum update...
    Anyway, wanted to thank you guys for the feedback. I ended up getting one of those cable adapters and has the chance to quickly try out the mike today on vocals.
    Man, it really has a delicious sound. As a comparison I had an Audix OM3 which is, to be fair, a pretty good dynamic for vocals. The Audix gave out a lot more volume at the same gain stage, yet there was just something about the Sennheiser - I would call it a kind of light, warm "vintage overdrive" for lack of any better expression - that just had more of a "character of its own". Turns out, its one of the grey 421s from the 60s, so I'm just stoked that it still sounds so good!


    Anyway, looking forward right now, to give it some good use by doing some profiling of my own. I guess I'll share some of the results when its done ;)


    Cheers!

    Quote from Verminante

    I've just literally stumbled on an old Sennheiser MD 421N that they were about to throw out at the institute where I work.


    I'm so glad you were there to rescue this amazing mic.
    It makes me angry to think that iconic hardware like this is lost all the time because people don't know any better, or simply don't care.


    Make some great profiles with it and share them, please, so the mic is immortalized ;)