For standing solo vocalists I usually use single or (more normally) twin Schoeps RC1200g on an STR350g.

So that's a 1200mm extension tube on a 350mm upright rod. It works for most singers. I could use a shorter tube, e.g. a 600/700mm on a taller upright (e.g. 600/1000mm) but I find that having the swivel mount on a short upright with the longer tube, so only the straight, slim tube for most of the height, is visually neater than having the swivel mount higher up/around waist height.

If I had to use the MKH8000 stuff, I'd be looking for a similar setup. YMMV

Yes I agree.. seems to me that a longer extension tube on a shorter rod will be better visually by getting the swivel mount but also the remote cable closer to the floor.

I have a opera concert later this summer and this conductor typically don't want any visible mic's at or close to the stage. I'm hoping that he will let me put up a solist mic or two if I can make it really neat. :-)

These parts don't come cheap but it looks so much better than a standard mic stand so I think I'm going for it.


/Peter

I think the best combination is the 60 upright and the 120 tube (this is what I am going to get).

The uprights *can* be screwed together to make them longer (the blanking cap at the top unscrews) - I have seen a stand with four of the long ones screwed together to make it extremely tall (the base *did* have several weights on it, though, to make it stable).

A 60 upright and 120 extension will bring the mic. to the correct height and you can always have a second upright if necessary.

Thanks for input guys!

It's definetely the 120cm tube and either the 30cm or 60cm upright.

The price of these items is a royal pain but OTOH the looks are fantastic and I guess it's worth it if the alternative is no spot mic at all.


/Peter

This was my problem with them. Analytical sound is not natural to me.

If you can live with the look of these the price is a royal delight, but I'm afraid I'm saturating this forum with the same old IKEA stand propaganda yet again, so tell me to butt out if you're sick of it by now.....
Ikea makes either the floor stand or table stand bases, hence the differing surface area of the two...but both are flat, square, with 4 rubber feet under....see AA batteries for size comparison. I'd suggest the bigger of the 2 if you had any worries about it being tipped over, or else add a weight or gaffa it to the floor, and let the mic mount do any shock absorbing. I'm showing 2 different possible mic mounts for the 8000, the regular clip or the Invision (which actually draws more visual attention to itself than the regular clip....!) The disassembled picture shows you the range of rod lengths you get if you buy both a floor and a table lamp, and needless to say you can mix and match a variety of these to fine tune your required height according to the height of the singer...much more flexibility available than simply the 120, 30 or 60 that Sennheiser gives you ! Rods you see in the pics are 20,30, 38, 45 cms. Of course the cabling is external, but as you can see with a Sennheiser remote cable and a centimetre or two of spiral wrap around the rod both top and bottom it keeps everything pretty neat. By the way, this type of lighting stand is not unique to Ikea, it's just a set of screwed together threaded rods, and you can probably find the same in your local lighting shop. You can do an Ikea website search for prices, they change the model names every year or so but the items' construction remains the same. Much cheaper, and more flexible re.height fine-tuning, than the 'genuine' product !
Ray

Thanks for input Ray!

I'm a DIY'er at heart as well so your ideas is very welcome to me. :-)

One thing that worries me a little with the "real deal" is structure born noise up the tube.

The INV mount as you say draws a little more attention.

I have the standard uppright K&M stands with round foot which is relatively good looking with INV-3, however I think I want the option of the neatest solution possible at times when looks are really important.


/Peter

Yes, I agree with the slimline visual requirement....sometimes to get to place your mics where you want them to be you have to place a greater than desired consideration on aesthetics, especially in a concert setting where every additional piece of black hardware can be a cause of anxiety to managers, video people etc. Mi Ikea stand is just as prone to transmitting floor borne vibration as the Sennheiser probably is, so if it's a suspended wooden floor I will place a sheet of thick rubber matting under the stand. In addition, I have pumped liquid silicone (typical domestic waterproofing tube stuff) into each rod section of mine, and allowed it to dry a few days on the car dashboard to cure it. At least this gives a lot of internal damping to the rods, and adds a little mass to the whole stand as well. Beyond that, it's up to the invision shock mounts to do their job ! However on stone or concrete floors I'm happy to leave the mic in a regular clip, as there is no vibration transmitted through such material in a typical orchestral or chamber concert, and the stand is about 1 metre in front of the singer/soloist's music stand anyway, so out of harms way !

The Sennheiser 8000 series stand has an anti-vibration base and is finished in the same non-reflective dark grey Nextel as the microphones are.

Also, the cable runs inside the extension tube (like the Schoeps) for a neater on-stage presence.




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Noise transmission into the setup is a problem, on anything other than a solid stone floor, if someone knocks the stand, or walks past it on a noisy wooden floor/stage, or with artists who like to jig about as they perform.

Schoeps (and presumably Sennheiser), as K+M, incorporate a rubber ring in the bottom of the stand base to help but it doesn't do much apart from stopping the stand from sliding about on steeply raked stages. They do, however, sell a (typically expensive) 270mm diameter foam rubber mat (SM270) to place under the stand, which is far more effective at isolating even quite difficult vibrations. The only problems I have with it are that the ones I have are not black, but light grey (I believe that the current version is black/charcoal grey), and they can get lost if busy stagehands moving stands on a complex show forget to pick them up when they move the stand. (I should probably get creative with some velcro or something but I keep forgetting until the next one is lost.)

I expect that you could find some suitable pieces of foam to isolate either the Sennheiser stands or the Ikea versions .

Incidentally, I don't know about Sennheiser but the standard Schoeps base (BF250) is made of cast iron and doesn't like being dropped onto anything too hard as it tends to crack/shatter. When this has happened to one of mine, I discovered that the metal chuck used to attach the upright rod is simply screwed into the base and it shares a thread size/type with the bases of most round base K+M stands (the base Schoeps sell with their chuck fitted actually looks like one of the K+M stand bases). It's a lot cheaper to buy a complete stand from K+M, and fit the Schoeps chuck from the broken stand, than it is to buy a new base from Schoeps. You also have the option of choosing from a range of different K+M bases, including some of the new grey Nextel finish stands, which look very smart with all the other grey Nextel finished Schoeps rods, tubes, mics, etc.. I now have Nextel bases for most of my extension tubes, particularly those used in more visible roles like front of stage soloists. (The Nextel finished K+M bases however are smaller and lighter than the Schoeps base which is ok on something like a RC1200/STR350 but could be problematically unstable with taller combinations/higher centres of gravity.) Having found that I can buy the chuck from Schoeps as a spare part, and found a company that can do Nextel coating, I've been putting together some slimline stands of my own for my Schoeps stuff using K+M bases and my own Nextel coated rods and fittings.


On the INV mount appearance, I once had a TV director stop a shoot to complain about 'those hideous things on the mics' and wait whilst I swapped them for the Schoeps mounts I usually use. So much for 'In vision'! I do like them in most respects, just not the appearance.

Thanks 0VU - a most useful post.

Deflex sheets are superb at absorbing vibration - I think it's the modern version of "Sorbothane" that was around in the 1970's.

I use these for absorbing vibration.

I got mine from Canford Audio - but I can't find them on the website at the moment.

I'm not sure that you could have called the 8000 series mics 'modular' ...since the detachable part was really the xlr connector, rather than the capsule ?

However, this (single dealer) claim about the company moving over to unibody mics only from now on (for this mic series) could probably use some independent verification ?

Sennheiser 8000 series NO LONGER MODULAR !!

There seems to be a small cosmetic change to the current omni version...the large gold lettering, and the 'fish gills' near the top of the mic: https://en-au.sennheiser.com/mkh-8020

Edit: As you can see in the pic below, it looks like the XLR end is still detachable, allowing use of remote cables ?

MKH 8040

Does anyone know what type/brand of cable Sennheiser use in their MKH-8000 series remote cables:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ote_Cable.html. ?

It's thin and lightweight, with a rubbery feel, and seems to be highly-immune to tangling... and has little to no 'memory' for retaining kinks/bends and twists....it's very well behaved !

Cable diameter is 2.7mm, and has a outer jacket texture, thickness and flexibility similar to a typical IPhone charging cable.

Any ideas where Sennheiser might have sourced this....mfr, product code etc ?
I'd like to use a reel of the raw cable to make extenders for other mics...Decca Tree, 4 mic bars etc

Can't be omni with the fish gills.

David, if you google the Sennheiser MKH8020, you will find it actually DOES have 'fish gills'...why I have no idea - I assume it was cost-saving or marketing decision.

Even a mic needs air !

Yes, I too thought it was a typo (or grapho...) when I first saw it, thinking they'd substituted the 8040 pic. Maybe they're 'decorative etchings' ?

Here's the current product page, with picture, for the omni-directional MKH8020:

https://en-au.sennheiser.com/mkh-8020

....while another brochure of the 8000 series shows the same mic without slots:

https://assets.sennheiser.com/global...ew_12_2019.pdf

Most likely careless marketing dept literature ?

The 2.7mm diameter makes it just slightly thicker than typical lavalier cable, but not by much...and equally flexible... if that helps in identifying it...?

Yep, no fish gills on this one.
https://www.sounddevices.com.au/shop...20-stereo-set/

Reviving this thread to assess the current state of intermittent hiss and/or general breakdown of the MKH8000 series mics. I know it was a widespread problem in the (several !) years after release, that was handled responsibly by Sennheiser with no-cost repairs and complete replacement units.

Apparently it was a faulty ground issue, and one of the fixes entailed supplying an ultra-thin body ring that can be seen in new units sandwiched between capsule assembly and xlr module (and in the attached pic…between the company name and ‘Made in Germany’ sections.

At the time these problems became widespread I awaited a general recall of the mic series (it was never issued) and thus resisted sending in my matched pair for ‘repair’ or updating/refurb, while no problem had surfaced in mine.

I’m reading in other forums that the series is considered EOL and people with units showing the same symptoms are now being charged a flat $575 out-of-warranty changeover fee for a replacement capsule module, rather than Sennheiser repairing these.


Hence, mixed feelings on my early version, never faulty MKH8020 pair…am I simply fortunate, or the owner of a ticking time-bomb with an eventual expensive maintenance charge…superseding what was previously an honourable free replacement policy?

Here’s a link to an early GS thread about the problem: MKH8000 Intermitent Noise
In this thread, it’s asserted confidently by Sennheiser that they fixed the manufacturing issue in mid 2013 (post no.30)

If you’ve had recent cause to send your MKH8000 series mic in for repair…what’s been your experience ?

If the 8000 series is EOL, where is the 80000 series then ?
What ever became of that poll where Sennheiser asked us about a possible 8030 ???

The company seems to be going down the drain. No decent headphones anymore, no new mic development.

Around 6 months ago I sent a 8050 mic in for repair to Sennheiser. Sennheiser customer support said that the
microphone had a design flaw, and that Sennheiser had changed the design of the mic, and did not repair mics
with the previous design, but that I could pay $595 to recieve a new one, which I agreed to. It was shipped a few days ago (I haven't recieved it yet).

There are several possible philosophical responses to that corporate decision, but at core they seem to be telling you the mic is out of warranty (or perhaps never was in warranty ?)….and that you need to pay for their design failings, after paying for it once already at initial purchase. Your experience is consistent with what I’ve been reading in other forum boards, and the $ amount is equivalent also.

$595 is super cheap for that mic. Grab as many 8020 omnis as you can.

Hope it is not discontinued since the sound is fantastic.
Euro suppliers still have no problem getting them to you.

It’s 595 on top of the 1200 or whatever the cost per-mic was circa 2010. That’s the replacement cost Sennheiser is charging instead of fixing mics with known design issues, which they used to do for free.

Did they indicate when they had changed the design? I bought my 8050 in 2017 or 2018, no noise issues so far. Oops, I see upthread that they say they fixed it in 2013 so mine should be okay.

The ethics are questionable. It's like so many things in the internet age, where things become outdated quickly. An expensive high tech mic becomes a disposable item. They don't fix your mic, they just throw it in the garbage and give you a special deal on a new one. Nobody is capable of fixing that version anymore, or explaining exactly what the "design flaw" was. It's been long forgotten and the individuals working for the big company this week just got hired recently. Once the flaw kicks in it will cost you more than a mic repair. You should be happy for taking part in such a high tech experience (just forget about the old mic it already got melted down for scrap metal).

Money to fix an admitted design flaw? Depending on where you live, there are consumer protection laws in your favor. A summary/default judgment could be issued if you have company statements.

is the Sennheiser MKH 50 still available? It was bulletproof. seems to be out of stock at some dealers