[austonia]

HI,

SoundProfessionals.com sells microphone preamps for more than $140. they amp a signal by 20 - 40db. they use minijack inputs and outputs. could my portacorda2 headphone amp do the same thing..? i don't see any reason why not. I ordered a "battery module" from SP but decided against the preamp option because it just seems too expensive, and my PC2 might work just fine.

microphones > battery module > PC2 > MP3 recorder

any thoughts..?

Austin

 

[lini]

You could give it a try, but nevertheless I'd doubt that you would get decent results. I'd exspect not enough gain and a disappointing snr in such a configuration.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Orpheus]

i think you're mistaken. any real mic preamps will not use minijacks. most normal mics use XLR's. also, most dedicated preamps have 60db+ of gain. and you're gonna need it for the soft stuff. AND... in order to use condensor mics, you'll need phantom power, which your preamp won't have. ALSO, mics run on balanced cables. if you use a non-balanced preamp, you'll lose half the signal and will also amp some noise, which would have been eliminated have you used balanced lines.

i believe carlo has a friend that's using his mg head as a preamp. but really... it's not a good idea.

do yourself a favor and go to GC... buy a M-Audio DMP3... it's the best mic preamp out there under $200. you can haggle the GC rep down to $120. i even bought one myself. excellent preamp for the price.

go to homerecording.com/bbs

they got a lot of info on cheap preamps/mics

 

[austonia]

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus i think you're mistaken. any real mic preamps will not use minijacks. most normal mics use XLR's. also, most dedicated preamps have 60db+ of gain. and you're gonna need it for the soft stuff. AND... in order to use condensor mics, you'll need phantom power, which your preamp won't have. ALSO, mics run on balanced cables. if you use a non-balanced preamp, you'll lose half the signal and will also amp some noise, which would have been eliminated have you used balanced lines. i believe carlo has a friend that's using his mg head as a preamp. but really... it's not a good idea. do yourself a favor and go to GC... buy a M-Audio DMP3... it's the best mic preamp out there under $200. you can haggle the GC rep down to $120. i even bought one myself. excellent preamp for the price. go to homerecording.com/bbs they got a lot of info on cheap preamps/mics

Thank you for the replies. Most of the mics at SoundProfessionals.com actually do use 3.5mm mini-jacks, as do their homegrown preamp/battery modules. The reason why is that these are generally used for stealth recording at concerts (like with MiniDisc recorders). Which is my purpose as well. I don't think I will need a preamp with the volume level of the music at this show. I didn't order a preamp anyway. I know the better mics use XLR connections and beefier power/cables but for my purposes I just need smallness. From what you guys said it looks like my headphone amp will not make a good preamp. I may give it a try a home and just see what happens.

 

[Orpheus]

hey.

k... i see. this is a special application. but i think most minidisk recorders have some mic input. if it does, you should be able to get away with not using a real preamp. of course, i doubt that the quality would be very good. probably lots of noise and hum. but you get what you pay for.