The Low Cost Binaural and Low Cost Stealthy Cardioid microphone sets use
a pair of miniature electret condensor cartridges.
The Low Cost Binaural mics have a frequency response of from 20 Hertz to
more than 20 kiloHertz and are very flat (typically within 2 dB) over
that frequency range.
The Low Cost Stealthy Cardioid microphones have a frequency response of
from 40 Hz to 18 kiloHertz. They have a rising frequency
response over that range with the exception of a slight (2 dB) peak
between 9 kHz and 12 kiloHertz and a bass response fall off of roughly 6
dB per octave starting at 100 Hertz. (The bass response is very similar
to our Core Sound Binaural microphones with the bass roll-off
filter).
We match the microphone pairs to within one dB of each other.
The Low Cost microphones require a bias voltage (also called "plug-in
power") of between 1.5 and 10 Volts DC, supplied by the recorder or
mixing panel via the same cable that carries the audio signal. All
current digital and analog recorders supply bias voltage. They include
the Sony WM-D6C Pro Walkman (analog cassette), Sharp
-702/-722/-831/-877/-MT15/-MT20/-MT60/-SR60 and Sony
MZ-R30/-R37/-R50/-R55/-R70/-R90/-R700/-R750/-R900/-R950 mini-disk
recorders, Aiwa AM-F70/-F80 minidisk recorders, Sony TCD-D7/D8/D100 and
PCM-M1 DAT recorders and many Aiwa recording Walkmen. All of these do
not require a battery box. (Contact us if you're not sure how to check
if your recorder provides a bias voltage.)
For recorders that do not provide a bias voltage, you can use one of our
battery boxes.
The mics require less than 1 milliamp of current and so do not affect
the recorder's battery life at all.
Low Sensitivity Option: If you are using one of the Sony MD
recorders that lack the low sensitivity setting on its mic pre-amp
(MZ-R37, MZ-R70, MZ-R71, MZ-R90, MZ-R91, MZ-R700, MZ-R750) or that have
overload problems (MZ-R55), you'll find that if you record loud music,
the mic pre-amp will overload and you'll hear huge amounts of
distortion. (These are the only recorders that lack this feature. All
of the other Sony MD recorders and all Sharp recorders have a low
sensitivity setting.)
To eliminate the distortion one must to reduce the level of the signal
that the mics send to the recorder. Until now, to do this required that
you use self-powered microphones and an external attenuator cable,
adding significant expense.
To reduce the cost we've designed a new set of microphones that has a
much lower sensitivity. It puts out a much lower signal --
(approximately 15 to 20 dB lower in level) and so are much less likely
to overload your recorder's mic pre-amp.
The design adds a little cost but compared to previous solutions, it
saves quite a bit more.
(Keep in mind that reducing a microphone's sensitivity makes it less
suitable to record quieter sounds. If you primarily record quiet
sounds, we recommend that you use the standard LCB/LCSC microphones and
not the low sesitivity version.)
(Note: The Sony MZ-R500 does not have a microphone pre-amp and so we
don't recommend it for recording live music.)
In general, if your recorder provides a bias voltage to the microphones
(what's usually known as "plug-in power") you
do not need a
battery box.
If your recorder does not provide a bias voltage, or if you need to feed
your recorder's line inputs to avoid overloading your recorder's mic
pre-amplifier, you can use one of our battery boxes.
And if you need a bass roll-off filter to reduce "bass boom" again one
of our battery boxes will do the job.
We offer three models of battery boxes. The first provides a flat
frequency response. The second provides a bass frequency roll-off (6 dB
per octave starting at 120 Hz). The third has a very high quality
locking toggle switch that selects between the flat frequency response
and the bass roll-off filter.
To connect the battery box to your Low Cost microphones, you'll need the
adapter cable that is listed on the order form. The cable is a
"Y"-shaped cable. It provides a jack into which you plug your
microphones, a locking mini-XLR that plugs into the battery box, and an
1/8" stereo plug that plugs into your recorder. Each of the cable's
arms are one-foot (approximately 30 cm) long.
NOTES:Please note that adding a battery box to our Low Cost
Binaural or Low Cost Stealthy Cardioid microphone set do not turn them
into equivalents of our popular Core Sound Binaural and Core Sound
Stealthy Cardioid microphone sets. The Low Cost microphone sets do not
incorporate the microphone capsule modifications that give the higher
priced microphones their much lower distortion, much wider dynamic
range, more transparent sound quality and lower self noise.
Also note that the battery box is not a microphone pre-amp.
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