# Unidyne III 544 Conversion.



## WhiskyJack1977 (Nov 10, 2016)

I managed to wrangle a 544 from a flea market last year for 20 bucks. Mostly because the seller had no idea if it worked and also they didn't have the cable or gooseneck or anything else that went along with it. His wife was supremely put out he let it go for 20 and her cringey outburst was hard to watch. I got out of there in the nick of time though. She made sure everyone within 100 yards knew she had a bigger price target in mind. They had other old shells of vintage mics with no diaphragms for 100CAD or more!! Decorations !!! She did have 51 housing that were pretty cool but not for 100 bucks each. 

I scoured the internet looking for cables and converters and i couldn't find anything for under 80USD, so i did the next logical thing and did the mic a disservice by frankensteining an Male XLR connection to where the Female Amphenol connection should have been. Super ugly. But man was it worth it. I prefer this mic over my 57 no contest. I have sound samples, that A/B the two but no idea how to provide it here? If you are interested in a more in depth evolution of this thing you can visit the saga here.  or to hear the difference between it and my 57 you can listen here. 

1&2 From the day i got it:


















3. Testing the new XLR before the final soldering and it was a great success. 










4. Finished Franken-Dyne. None of the male connections i could source fit the old housing so i just jammed the two together with a healthy supply of electrical tape. 










5. LOL. Electrical tape did the job sort of, but needs to be peeled off and reinforced with something. Not the most rigid product in the whole world. 










I would definitely do this exercise again 100% if i ever come across more of these. It was relatively easy i would never suggest anyone drop 80 or more dollars for a cable or converter for this unit. Exceptions being if you are the type of person that would like to keep vintage gear in vintage shape or like to baby your gear. Then by all means spend what you need to. But an hour of your time + 5 or 6 bucks on a male XLR connection and you got yourself a rock and roll mic.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

The cables are often stupidly expensive, but if you shop around you can find the amphenol 91MC4M connector at more reasonable prices and wire it up to a regular xlr mic cable.
Like this one:
AMPHENOL 91-MC4M 4 Pin Microphone Plug Connector Electrovoice 664 Shure 545s | eBay


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