The left one looks normal and the right one like a curious skinny thing. Never seen a skinny one like that. Odd.

Yep, definitely different. Mine is in the 6000, too (which makes me wonder if they started at 0, but that's another story) and is like the one on the left, including the matte screw thread near the bottom.

Could the right be a counterfeit or are all new ones like that?

BTW does Martin Schneider from Neumann post here?


Henk

I have a vintage 103 just FYI. And I handle it with white gloves. heh

...really?...

...seems "a bunch of chinese crap Mikes" mugged your TLM103...call the cops!

Stellar CM4 CM6 Review | recording hacks

Amazing? Isn't it? Both bought at a respectable pro audio store so nothing of eBay / chinese ripoffs ...

Well come one. We all know that older = better! Just a shame this doesn't quite blanketly apply to romantic partners too.

How so?

In every respect:

- totally different capsule for a start - the 102 is edge-terminated and the 103 is centre-terminated.

- different body of a very different size.

Hey, I remember this thread and I'm still intrigued.

Any news?

We had one of the first TLM-103's at Mercenary. I recall this being one of the worst condenser mic's I have ever heard. Unless you were mic'n up a rotted piece of wet tree bark in a damp cave, I wouldn't ever touch this mic. I thought it was satanic.

Perfect



You're on fire today!

call it like I hear it b! ha!
I wonder how much ear flesh I have lost testing this dumb "squawkrophone"...

No need to sugarcoat it. Tell us what you really think.

Satanic indeed. On voiceovers, I've heard them make noises that definitely did not emerge from the announcer's mouth.

[QUOTE=Doc Mixwell;10645570] I recall this being one of the worst condenser mic's I have ever heard. [/QUOT]

I take it this was after the infamous falling out between Mercenary and Neumann??

Adam's over the top rejection is typical of someone who's deeply in love.

like anyone at mercenary would know what a good sound is

No comment. Just wanted it to be delete-proof.

I think their constant pimping of Avalon 737 and their "Chinese" km 84 were enough proof of this... As well as the constant bashing of Vintech and other decent products.. the best one was when someone posted a clip of a vintech and a great river nv and he couldn't tell the difference
forget what site it was on, but it was absolutely hilarious... bunch of jokers there.... I don't think anyone is crazy about the sound of tlm103 or any Sennhieser version of Nuemmans for that matter... but mercancies constant unwarranted bashing of products like Nuemman, focusrite, vintech and many other products was absolutely tasteless. Too be honest I have never heard one decent recording from anyone there. I even worked with one of the guys there on a project one time... It was like pal, stick with selling because recording is definitely NOT your thing.

HA!!!!!!!

Adam recorded one of my favorite records. Don't know whether he used a 737 or a km69. Don't care. Tunes are great.

Worst mic I've ever hard. Bright, edgy, like broken glass. Even <$100 hand-held dynamics sounded better than it.

and here we go again...

Alternatively, now that this old thread is revived anyway, we could in fact focus on the original question.
It doesn't really matter if it's a piece of $#!1 or the greatest mic in the world. The question is was it changed?

Believe it or not, I mailed Neumann to ask. Yeah, shoot me. Well, actually I mailed for dating of a some microphones (good service BTW), and yes, among those was an early TLM103. So while I was at it I thought I might as well ask:

"BTW, there’s some rumor that the TLM 103 changed slightly over the years (e.g. slightly different dimensions). Is this true?"

And the kind lady from the head office replied as follows:

"Unfortunately, we have no further information on the history of this microphone."

The 103, old or new, is a great mic for broadcast -commercial VO and such - the top end boost really pays off when it hits the transmitter processing and the airwaves. But there are certainly other mics that offer similar, if not almost the same boost. Seems the 103 is popular for that application because 1) it's a Neumann ... and 2) it's not so expensive. But the 102 is coming on strong around here for that same usage and it's easy to get one for under $500 bucks. In that price range it's pretty hard to beat.

I bought one of the first TLM 103s back in the 90s, it was one of the first 100 microphones built andmy first Neumann, I was excited at the time. fletcher, the terror of pro.rec.audio (a bbs) said how much it sucked. I didn't want to believe him, but in hindsight it did in fact suck. I can't imagine the newer tLM 103s being any worse

Once again, I'll be compelled to admit that I use my TLM103 all the time on acoustic guitar. Must be something wrong with my ears, coz I love it and have done pretty well with the tracks I've used it on… And I've done shoot outs with my KM84, U67, 414EB, and many other lesser classics.

Granted, I've never preferred the TLM103 on anything else. Certainly not right for my vocals, or drums… But on acoustic, it always seems to do the trick. It's also a crazy loud mic… but I'm not usually trying to overdrive the preamp on acoustics anyway.

So maybe the mic does suck. But not on everything… Not all the time. :-)

So in conclusion the new tlm 103 is better as the old one?

What about the anniversary edition (black), are those 'new serial 44000' as well ?

No definitive answer on old versus new, yet, but this might interest some folks here:

http://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=63363.0

Can't believe I am reviving this thread myself... LOL
I never started this thread to say that the 103 got worse over the years. Just that it changed ever so slightly and with that the sound as well. I spoke to a former neumann employee over the weekend and thought of this thread. He said that it did change. Not much, but as manufacturing gear changed, so did the modell. Not much and much care was taken to keep it as much the same as possible. Changing the gear had nothing to do with making it cheaper or whatever. It was all down to the use of computerised equipment. When I bought my first 103's, the tascam 8 track da-88 just came to the market. By the time I wrote this thread I had more recording space on my phone.. so it's not strange that manufacturing equipment also changed.

Since starting this thread (and opening a new studio, building 2 control rooms and 2 recording rooms) if have seldom used the 103 other than on acoustic Guitar. Shame since it is an OK mic, but I prefer some other mic's on most stuff. Including some other Neumann modells.
So it was time to sell the 103's. For some reason I could not get myself to selling the older one.... started with these 2 23 years ago and I guess they are keepers till the end.