these can be drawn inside and over time can build-up sufficiently in
the magnetic gap to rub against the ribbon, causing distortion or
electrical shorts. The best prevention is to keep the microphone
covered with the supplied cloth bag (or a plastic bag) when it is not in
use. This simple procedure also protects the microphone from the air
blast problems discussed above. Under no circumstances should you
disassemble and take the grill off of the microphone as this could allow
tramp iron to enter the narrow gap between the ribbon and the pole
pieces.
Microphone Positioning
The shock-mounted clip that is supplied with the N22 microphone
was designed to keep structure-borne noise transmitted through the
microphone stand away from the low-tuned ribbon transducer. For the
shock mount to function as intended and to avoid vibration entering
the microphone through its attached cable, it is important to tie the
microphone cable to the microphone stand in a loop with a cable tie,
shoelace or string.
Magnetic Stray Fields
The high-performance magnets used in the KU4 are incredibly strong
and a significant amount of stray magnetic field lines surround the
microphone. Avoid placing the microphone in close proximity to hard
drives, credit cards, analog tape, or any other magnetically-sensitive
items to prevent any data loss.
Ribbon microphones are fundamentally prone to picking up strong
external magnetic fields caused by light dimmers or nearby power
transformers. Guitar players will know this phenomenon from single-coil
pickups. Even though much attention was paid to suppressing these
magnetic fields in the design of the N22, it is still possible that you
might encounter this problem in every day life. If you should pick up a
hum, try rotating or moving the microphone to find a spot where the hum
disappears and try eliminating potential sources of stray magnetic fields.
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