Hi yes, my lab is kinda sorta getting back together after the flood and the new carpet moving everything had to move all these benches that I'm on. by the way, if you want to have a look there we go. Just had to move everything where you can see. There we go, it's still all blank because we just put it back like an hour ago.

So things are, things are getting back together, but there's still a whole pile of stuff over there. Can't move any of the soldering benches back in yet or much of it because there's actually cracked glass up there. That's where all the water flowed in and it actually it looks like somehow cracked one of the glass panels. so they have to replace that anyway.

I thought I'd stay on theme by doing a quick teardown. If this our Samson c01u mike USB Studio Condenser they've got absolutely flooded I believe you can probably see it looks like it's sort of starting to that's not really corrosion new. yes it's I don't know Anyway, tarnishing I guess for want of a better term and it's got like the foam in there as well. Like the capsule, it's one of these 1-inch I think it's a one-inch capsule condenser microphone and it's a very nice mic.

It's one of the original USB mics on the market just plug it straight into USB none of that XLR and external amp rubbish and it's a very good podcasting mic I got this before I actually this is the original one I got before I started the EEV blog actually which I used to record all samples for my pod Sweat program I'll try and link that one in at the end of this if you haven't seen that. Anyway, yeah, this got absolutely flooded. but this is a very nice podcasting mic and I use this in a many years for the amp hour I don't use it anymore for the amp hour I've got another one of these I've got two of them, but yeah, this is the original one. You could still buy it today I believe and it's an awesome vocal podcasting mic.

Highly recommended. Anyway, let's open it up and see if there's any damage at all. It looks like I'm because this doesn't screw I open it like this does have a little bit of a wiggle wiggle wiggle year in it, but you can't actually screw any of that off to take like a watch. You've got to take the the ring off the bottom like that.

so counter, rotate those and that ring and then everything I'm guessing pull straight out. So let's do a teardown of this thing and see if there's any damage. But also, let's see how this thing works and have a look at the capsule and stuff. Let's go trick with that.

It's to try and push down on that one and counter rotate that. Oh hello, that's not too bad. Spin that and a whole lot should pop out and that's the obvious design choice for something like this because you don't want, you know, idiot users. just you know, playing around with this and screwing off the top and stuff like that and so oh hello, we're in.

Oops. Yep. Oh, we're okay. Hello, it's got little retainer clips on the side.

Look at that. Nice. Are they actually grounded? No, they're not really grounded in any way. Well, it is through to the board.

you can actually see it go down there. So the die cast alloy framing there is actually connected through to the PCB ground like that and then these go off to the to the sides. But I guess there are they doing that for you know? Um, EMC reasons. But anyway, to go the case, it's gonna do the business anyway regardless.

But yeah. okay, so now capsules up in there. There's not much doing on the board is there and that's an AKM chipset there I Can't read that on the camcorder screen right now, but we can zoom. You know? I'll put up the datasheet for that and just a couple of little preamps in.

but well, not much else happening is there? Well, that wouldn't That wouldn't even be a preamp because it's no, we're nowhere near the capsule over here. so it said a little. a little regulator or something. little jewel footprint job' there.

They've got the little 6 pin SOT 20 sorry, yes, 6 pin SOT SOT 23 or alternatively, the 8 pin s. Oh, just that's a common technique when you if you can. Actually, if you've got the room and a device comes in multiple packages, which they often do. Just read the datasheet, look at the different packages and you've got the room.

It actually pleased to put in the dual footprints in there, because then come production time. especially if doing mass production. You know, high-volume stuff and things like that. And you're doing just-in-time manufacturing where you don't order.

You know, if you only make in a thousand units, you don't order 10,000 parts. For example, he's just ordered a thousand that you need. You might come a gutter on your supply chain and you might have to work swap the parts. Sorry sir, it's a twelve week lead time for those for that SOA part.

oh I don't care. give me the sock 23-6 thank you very much and you're back on your way. So there you go. It's not big deal, that's exactly what you expect in a USB mic.

Really? hmm and check this out. Old school I'm using the first screwdriver I ever got I believe it was when I was a kid and yes, I still have it. It's like Indiana Jones's hat. it keeps turning up no matter how many moves I've had.

still keeps going. Beauty all right. I've got four screws out under there. don't think I have to take out that one.

so I think that's just good I know sorry that was going up to a lead there I Thought that was coming from the mic before. it's not, it's just a little. ah, it's got to pull out. Careful trap for young players.

That one. you see that the holes, that whole sockets going to come out. it's going to pull straight out of the pins. that that'll ruin your day.

All right. So it's oh hello, hey, it's out. we're out. There's our Capshaw yep, looks like a one-inch job' 4uy condenser aficionados.

That's what the Samson capsule is like. and of course the larger the diameter capsule. the Ia look, we've got some. don't know if that's SEP from the water I Think you know I'm not sure if it actually got water inside here.

it's hard to tell because it's been many weeks now since the flood, so it's probably still in decent. Nick I Won't pretend to know the technology in the Samsun ones, but I've done. We dug for day. five Parts series on Mica.

I Think it's five parts on microphone design which goes into all the differences between the different types of mics and how mic preamps are designed and everything you want to know if you don't know. Doug Ford is the former head designer at Rode Microphones and he but like, yes, spilled all the beans all these knowledge on microphone designs. It's absolutely fantastic so that playlist will be linked in at the end, but there's a one-inch condenser mic. Of course It's front-facing so if you've got your like you have just like you can't It's not an end address one.

Obviously, you have to speak into the front part of it. here. you can't speak into the back side because it'll have a cardioid pattern around the front of the microphone like this. So they're the ones I actually prefer.

I don't like the end address microphones. they're just like a painter mount and things like I got to put them on the boom. you got a pointing towards you and stuff like that. You know it's okay for a shoddy but yeah for a you know, but for a nicer desk might like like this I prefer the side address ones like that, but that's that's all she wrote.

I've got a little pre upon there we we might. What's going on in there? what's the business? Let me see if I can take that off. Well that was worth the effort. Check it out because what they've got is a little Teflon standoff in there.

You see that on the bottom of the board and of course they're got some clearance around that and that is a going into a very high impedance point. This is obviously gonna be a J FET and they're using that just for a very low leakage point. So they've raised off the PCB that's I Really didn't expect that somebody's gilded the lily in there. Somebody didn't want any contamination or creepage on the PCB like for example, in this case, if we get water or moisture ingress to this thing across the board, then it can actually be our conductive across your a very high impedance J fed input and that's why you stand things like this.

You'll see that in like that turkey flee like femto amp meter. tear down that I did. You'll see lots of like standoffs for these for high impedance points. but yeah, isn't that lovely.

Looks like a 10 mega star there. You can see the Teflon standoff there. Very nice. It's good to look at that that trainee and of course they've lifted the pin.

Oh What's a case 661 8, 3 M is it I'll try and find the try and find the datasheet on that. There's another closeup of the capsule there that's the backside and of course it's all one the the the gold colored metal. There is all one diecast piece, but you can see looks like it's got a little grille in the front of it. It's hard to sort of get any further in that unless I Absolutely butcher this thing I Don't really want to do that because it's still a working mic I Like how they're you know, gone to the effort.

Just it. Like it doesn't just have a tag coming out of that. It's got a proper like crimp and screws. Somebody's got a at the factory's got a way.

Get in there and you know and screw all those together. So that's rather neat and it looks like it's all glued in. So to get access to any of that, yeah, I Really have to destroy the mic I Think so. sorry about that I'm not gonna go any further.

and of course, this is a capacitive condenser diaphragm one. It's actually 19 millimeters. wasn't right about the one inch one. It's a 19 millimeter job, and the way it works is that it's got a certain have a large diaphragm ie.

19 millimeters across inside there and there will be one electrical connection to the diaphragm. and then there'll be one electrical connection to the backplate as well. so that'll go through to the diagram diaphragm on the front. That connection will go through to the back plate on the back, and then it's just.

actually. when you talk into this thing, it just changes the capacitance. It just the bends, flexes very slightly inside and changes the capacitance by half. Abby's dick in there.

a poof teenth just changes it. and it could. of course you need a high impedance amplifier there to actually measure that. and that's why they're going to all the effort inside there to use that little teflon or whatever stand off there to lower the capacitance across the board.

so that it it. You know it's as low as possible, but it's a. you know, it's a pretty standard capsule design I Guess it's You know the Devils in the secret sauce is in the manufacturing detail. on each manufacturers going to keep that closely guarded secret, you won't generally won't find any patents on something like that.

I Don't think they'll generally keep it as a trade secret how they actually manufacture it to get their particular performance. And that's why all microphones sound different. They can all be. You know exactly the same nineteen millimeter or one inch capsule or whatever.

They can have all exactly the same specs and they can sound very different, quite different. And that's why you know some artists prefer one particular mic over another because it's got a Richard sounded. You know, insert audio wait term there and it is Actually it is actually real. They do actually sound different, so it's you know, personal preference preference.

not actually like the the sound of the Samson C01u. yes, vocals anyway. but you can use it for instruments and stuff like that. but yeah, I'm sure Samson won't tell us the secret source in their microphone, but anyway, it looks like there's some sort of is there a grill.

Oh, it looks like this. is there a mesh, a metal mesh over the over the diaphragm on front. I Think that's actually you know, fairly standard type of construction for these types of capsules. So there you go.

I Hope you enjoyed that brief look inside the Samson C01u USB Studio Condenser Mic: As I said, a very nice and affordable mic. If you're getting into podcasting or anything like that, know there's tons of USB mics these days. But back in the day I think the Samson Co one. You was like the de facto standard and did you distantly, there's nothing wrong.

You'd be hard pressed to beat the performance of where you can beat the performance technically, but you're really just down to our semantics at that point. I think the yeah Co one. You actually works quite nice. You don't have to get too close to it like I used a the end address rode podcaster mic for example and I didn't like that at all.

You had to get too close to it to actually get any decent bass response out of it. The proximity effect as its called this the Samson Co one you I, I think has a more tolerant proximity effect on it. It's you know, so you can be a fair bit away from it at various angles and things like that, and it still works quite nice. It still has quite a solid presence to it.

So yeah, it's pretty neat. So anyway, if you do have any details on how Samson actually construct their It Capsule condenser mic, then please leave it in the comments down below. But anyway, definitely go watch the Doug Ford Video Design Series five-part on microphone design. It's a winner winner chicken dinner and I don't think the water actually damaged this thing at all.

The phone probably like absorbed it and it just probably you know. It's a fairly fairly tities mesh on there and it's in the water. just probably just like poured off the thing in it. Yeah, probably soaked some of the foam, but I don't.

It doesn't seem to be any lasting damage apart from it's not really corrosion like tarnishing around here. I think this had already started just due to age and and stuff like that. But yeah, it's nothing wrong with this at all. Doesn't look like any.

There's no indication of any water penetrating this at all. So there you go. I hope you liked that video. If you did, please give it a big thumbs up.

And as always discussed down below, catch you next time.