anyone know where to get these "electronic elements" in N. America?

[19and41]

In my work I have fabricated handsets for use with rail car operators stations that used dynamic and electronic elements.  Here is one of the suppliers that I ordered from.  You could crack black walnuts with the handsets I put together.   

http://telephonecomponents.com/

[twocvbloke]

It's funny that someone from Hong Kong can sell me 10 tone generator chips and ship them to Maine for a total cost of $8.96, but Fedex charges $20 just to ship an item of similar size and weight from Texas to Maine.

There's a simple reason for that, the chinese government subsidises international postage, therefore making it cheap for us end-consumers to buy from them than it is to buy locally when the locally sold product is often from the same source in china...

Heck, I'm waiting for 80x 1 Watt LED beads (50x White, 20x Red, 10x Blue) for a total of £7.33 from china, can't get them that cheaply over here in the UK, yeah the waiting's a pain, but when you've got stuff you want to do on a very low budget, it's worth the wait...

[Jim Stettler]

Most items that I order via slow boat from China arrive on slow boat time but are shipped via air at the last minute with only a short time  in transit.
I suspect this is a technique to balance out the delay of processing the order. It arrives when advertised so I can't complain.
JMO,
Jim S.

[MaximRecoil]

There's a simple reason for that, the chinese government subsidises international postage, therefore making it cheap for us end-consumers to buy from them than it is to buy locally when the locally sold product is often from the same source in china...

Heck, I'm waiting for 80x 1 Watt LED beads (50x White, 20x Red, 10x Blue) for a total of £7.33 from china, can't get them that cheaply over here in the UK, yeah the waiting's a pain, but when you've got stuff you want to do on a very low budget, it's worth the wait...

That's interesting. I'd never heard anything like that, so I looked into it and found this article. The cheap shipping rates from China to the US are due to an international treaty which began in 1969:

PEC: Can U.S. merchants can ship products to China in a similar inexpensive manner?

Steidler: No. It is dirt cheap to ship goods from China to the United States because China has gotten itself classified as a group 3 country under the International Universal Postal Union system. China is in a grouping with Botswana, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, and similar underdeveloped countries.

PEC: The issue is not so much the policy of terminal dues, it's the classification that China has within that policy. Is that what you're saying?

Steidler: That's a big part of it. The entire terminal dues system should be looked at. In fact, it's something that began in 1969 — before ecommerce, before the age of international shipping.

In any case, $20 to ship a transmitter is outrageous even by domestic shipping standards. USPS would only charge a couple/few dollars to ship that. I order small parts from Digi-Key all the time, and thankfully they have a USPS shipping option. Anything under a certain weight, either 8 ounces or a pound, I can't remember which, ships for $3.75. Mouser, which is Digi-Key's main competitor, has a flat-rate USPS shipping option for about $5, so if possible, I order from them if the weight of what I'm ordering is over Digi-Key's limit for the $3.75 shipping option. The vast majority of the time, what I'm ordering doesn't exceed the weight limit though.

[MaximRecoil]

I finally decided to try one of these out. I went with the older style EMS-94 with the integrated cup from Sandman.com because it was $4.99 + $12.32 shipping, as opposed to the one that doesn't have an integrated cup from Payphone.com for $7.75 + $29.08 shipping (and I thought the $5.50 + $20.04 shipping they were charging 4 years ago was bad).

I did a test by calling UPS with the standard carbon transmitter and the EMS-94 transmitter, and recording the calls. My voice definitely sounds cleaner (less distortion) with the EMS-94, but it's not quite as loud. I've attached the two recordings so anyone can compare them for themselves.

The slight background buzzing/hum isn't from the transmitters or any other part of the phone (which is a Western Electric 2500), it's from the audio recording adapter. It is easily removed in e.g., Audacity without noticeably affecting the sound of the voices. Also, if I used a cassette recorder instead of my PC to record, the buzzing wouldn't be there in the first place. The recording adapter has circuitry to greatly reduce the buzzing when recording with a PC (an audio isolation transformer, mainly), which isn't even needed if recording with a cassette recorder, i.e., a normal passive adapter (which is just a dual RJ22 to 1/8" miniplug adapter, no other circuitry) works fine for that. On the other hand, if you try recording with a PC using a normal passive adapter, the buzzing is so loud that it overpowers the voices.

[MMikeJBenN27]

I found this

http://www.antiquetelephones.co.uk/contents/en-uk/p11569_Electronic_Microphone_to_Fit_US_500_Series.html

these are in the UK for 500 type handsets. I have seen others that replace the entire mic cup but never these. At least they say "electrinic mic" so I assume the are not carbon mics. That means these from the UK will also work in trimlines, Sculpturas, 70s candlestick repros  and so many more that do not have the mic cup to replace.

Mark

I tried a couple of these, and they both failed.  The stock ones are excellent.  There is no need to "upgrade".

Mike

[19and41]

Here's a US source.  I used to order the electret elements for use in rail car intercoms.

https://www.payphone.com/-Handset-Parts./

[MaximRecoil]

About the ridiculously high shipping prices from the Payphone.com web store that I mentioned a couple times previously: I decided to call them to see if I could get a better price on shipping, and they were quite helpful. She gave me a price of $10 shipping to Maine for one transmitter. I decided to buy 4 of them plus a keypad, and she gave me a price of $15 shipping for that.

[MaximRecoil]

The newer style EMS-94 transmitters from Payphone.com arrived, and I'm not happy with them. They transmit much louder than the old style integrated-cup EMS-94, a little too loud actually, since in the test recording I did my voice was louder than the UPS robot lady's voice. The old style EMS-94 was quieter than the UPS voice, and the standard carbon transmitters are about the same volume as the UPS voice, which is as it should be.

In addition to these new EMS-94s being too loud, they are harsh/tinny sounding.

I did find something I'm happy with though. The carbon transmitter I'd been using in the recording tests is some brand I don't recognize; it has a logo stamped on it that says "NYC" and it's enclosed in a diamond-shaped outline. It also says "T-100" and "112" on it. I didn't like the way it sounded so I tried a Western Electric T1 with a 1977 date on it. It didn't sound any better than the "NYC T-100." So I tried one that didn't say anything on it except for ITT and it sounded great. The volume of it was perfect and my voice was natural sounding. I managed to find another one of those ITT transmitters upstairs in a box and I now have them in the two phones I use the most (a WE 2500 and a WE 500).

I've attached a recording of the new EMS-94 transmitter and the ITT carbon transmitter.

[RDPipes]

Just a thought here, the newer style EMS-94 transmitters you received maybe designed for volume controlled
handsets, so without a volume control you hear full volume which is too high for the normal ear specially in a quiet setting like ones home. Just a thought.

[MaximRecoil]

Just a thought here, the newer style EMS-94 transmitters you received maybe designed for volume controlled
handsets, so without a volume control you hear full volume which is too high for the normal ear specially in a quiet setting like ones home. Just a thought.

It would be the person on the other end of the line hearing the higher volume. I only heard it because I recorded it, and could look at the waveform to see that my voice was louder than the UPS voice (albeit, only slightly louder). Don't volume-control handsets only have a volume control for the receiver rather than for the output of the transmitter?

In any case, the main thing I don't like about the new-style EMS-94 is the sound quality Not only is it tinny, but it even sounds like it's clipping a little bit. The ITT carbon transmitter sounds a lot better to me; more natural; more like my voice actually sounds.

[RDPipes]

Ah, for some reason I was thinking receiver even though you stated transmitter, my fault!

[MaximRecoil]

Ah, for some reason I was thinking receiver even though you stated transmitter, my fault!

No problem.

I'd like to know where I can get some more of these ITT transmitters. They don't have any markings at all on them except for "ITT" molded into the middle of the perforated plastic piece on the top.

I have a some more I could test. The oldest Western Electric T1 that I have here is from 1972, so I want to see if that one sounds any better than the 1977 one. It seems strange that ITT would have made better sounding transmitters than WE.

Edit: The 1972 WE T1 sounds the same as the 1977 one.

[rdelius]

When I worked at COT we would buy new capsules from Audiosears in NJ

[19and41]

Here is a retail source in the US.  Look down on the page.  They carry 2 types of electret capsule transmitters.

https://www.sandman.com/products/handsets/replacement-components