From: Wild Sanctuary <>
> Hmmmm. My Rykotes hold both the MKH30 and 40 in the ring and the
> zeppelin, Walt. With room to spare and no contact with the ring. I'll
> be happy to send you pix if you'd like. I've got three identical
> systems and they work fine. The problem I have with Sennheiser covers
> is that they're hard to disassemble and put back together in the
> field because of the way they're threaded...something the company is
> working on.
I mounted the same combo in the latest design modular suspension I have
here, using Rykote's dual rings some time back. When moved around I was
getting occasional hits of the mics or their clips on the rings. I
wonder what's different? Might have worked with even heavier o-rings, I
was using the size they recommend for dual mics. I also considered
custom machining the dual rings. But at about that point I got a
Sennheiser setup and tried it. So much better, so much easier to set up.
I did not go back to fiddling with the modular rings with all their
little delicate parts. All those small parts on the ring are another
negative to me about the Rykote. I'm not sure I'd want to take it apart
out in the field unless where I could see any parts that dropped off.
They normally stay on, but I had enough occasions where some did pop loose.
The screw threads on the Sennheiser zeps do tend to be a little sticky
as they come. But a thin film of Dow Corning high vacuum grease put on
and mostly wiped off removed that sticky problem. Smooth and easy to
work with since then. That's my magic formula for such problems, btw.
The sennheiser zep is more robust and I don't worry much about breaking
it. And that's a huge plus for it. Screwing on the cap is minor.
All sennheiser would have to do to make the threads smooth is change the
type of plastic. Delrin AF should work well, but would be expensive.
It's delrin with 10% teflon added. You do have to be careful that the
open slot is held together when screwing on the cap, but that's hardly a
problem. I leave the back cam lock open, hold it in position by hand
while putting the cap on. Then lock the back cam. If you lock the back
cam first it can be harder.
I can think up better designs than either Rykote or Sennheiser for the
end caps. Rykote's little locking tabs are delicate.
On the other hand, the Rykote M/S setup that the MKH-80's are in is a
struggle every time I take it apart. Sure the end removes fairly easily,
with only moderate breakage risk, but the rest does not. But when you
go to slip off the zep it often binds coming off, for reasons that are
unclear. And it would be so easy to break the zep forcing it. I usually
end up nearly taking apart the bar to free it. And the rubber insert
keeps insisting on folding it's edges and sticking them in the wrong way
when going back on. I think it's most of the problem. Takes delicate
effort to get it all back together with the insert in properly. I hate
taking that one apart. Note it was not assembled from a bunch of parts
from different auctions like most of my stuff, but was found in one
auction complete, even the fur cover. So, it's the correctly matching
parts.
I have thought of replacing the rubber insert with a machined delrin
one, which would cure most of the take apart/put together problems. I do
have some flexible plastic strips, rubber like, that if I could figure
out how to machine accurately would make a near exact replacement
material that I could design more robust.
In reality I'm looking at machining a custom suspension for the
MKH-80's. One designed around their side pickup. I'm pretty sure I can
design one that will get them into a mono zep. Probably without using
it's end cap.
I have several Rykote zeps here and inserts and so on. All seem to have
that same problem with the rubber insert to some degree. Though since
they are not part of my main system I've not used them enough to see if
they would smooth up.
Walt
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