Topic: ua-5 question

[leegeddy]

I'm going to quote myself!  I did some hack experiments.  I just put a 1kHz sinewave out of my headphone jack into the UA5 Neutrix inputs.  I took the output from analog line out.  Does headphone output affect line out level?  I dunno, but I set it to max anyway.

I measured the input level with a voltmeter and got something like 130mV.  At the minimum sens the output was almost the same, 140mV.  At 9 o'clock it went up by *very* little.  At 12 o'clock it was up about 8dB. (dB power, 20*log10(Vout/Vin)).  At 3:00 it was up about 20dB. That is, at 3:00 the signal is amplified by ten times in voltage, one hundred times in power.  I didn't measure it, but between 3:00 and 5:00 there must be a *huge* change gain, going from 20 to 50dB!

So, here is my suggestion: For AT853 (sens -45dB) , start around 3:00 to give 20dB gain.  For hotter mics (eg, sens -35dB) maybe start at 12:00 for 8-10dB gain.

Damn, I just wish that control were linear in dB.  Oh well.

  Richard

richard;
how about this crazy idea?  use your ears to listen for the loudness of the sound and eyes to see the level meter on a recorder.   

"too much technology can dilute the experiences of the art"

marc

[poorlyconditioned]

I'm going to quote myself!  I did some hack experiments.  I just put a 1kHz sinewave out of my headphone jack into the UA5 Neutrix inputs.  I took the output from analog line out.  Does headphone output affect line out level?  I dunno, but I set it to max anyway.

I measured the input level with a voltmeter and got something like 130mV.  At the minimum sens the output was almost the same, 140mV.  At 9 o'clock it went up by *very* little.  At 12 o'clock it was up about 8dB. (dB power, 20*log10(Vout/Vin)).  At 3:00 it was up about 20dB. That is, at 3:00 the signal is amplified by ten times in voltage, one hundred times in power.  I didn't measure it, but between 3:00 and 5:00 there must be a *huge* change gain, going from 20 to 50dB!

So, here is my suggestion: For AT853 (sens -45dB) , start around 3:00 to give 20dB gain.  For hotter mics (eg, sens -35dB) maybe start at 12:00 for 8-10dB gain.

Damn, I just wish that control were linear in dB.  Oh well.

  Richard

richard;
how about this crazy idea?  use your ears to listen for the loudness of the sound and eyes to see the level meter on a recorder.   

"too much technology can dilute the experiences of the art"

marc

Yeah, that is true, but it is good to have a starting point.  The original point of my post was my frustration with so much gain being in the last two "hours" of the gain knob...

Anyway, let's close the thread.  You're right, out with the tech and in with the taping.

By the way, I just recorded a great show tonight using AT853H > UA5 > NJB3.  Love those hyper caps

  Richard