Telefunken D11C

The Telefunken D11C is a dynamic mic that was made in 1963 and sold as an addition to a tape machine. Nowadays you can pick one up for £10 - £20 (mine cost £11.50 off ebay) But are they useable for recording?

Since this mic was made in 1963 it doesn’t use the standard XLR connection, so after some research I decided to cut off the 3-pin din and wire it to a balanced XLR connection (for information on balanced and unbalanced connections look here.) Although the 3 pin connector looks very similar to an XLR the wiring is slightly different (positive and ground are swapped round.)

Once the end was rewired to an XLR, I tested it with drums and guitar and was very surprised with the results. Considering that this is a relatively inexpensive microphone, it is very usable and works well with both. Although I'd say this isn't something that I'd personally use to record a whole drum kit on its own (due to mixing limitations), as an additional mic it would work well.