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Gear / Technical Help => Battery Boxes, Preamps, Mixers, ADCs, and Processors => Topic started by: BlingFree on May 22, 2012, 09:23:49 AM

Title: Question about "underpowering" the UA-5
Post by: BlingFree on May 22, 2012, 09:23:49 AM
I am and it works... why tho?

I have a properly prepared USB to M tip (reversed) cable and I thought.... why not?

The box says 9v DC and there's an article here saying it will run on 7v DC so I figured trying 5.25v DC would not power it and simply drain the battery eventually. I was shocked to see it power on but figured that the pres would be weak or choppy or something. However, after 45 minutes of recording my PC speakers is sounded like I expected it to. And after 10 hours of leaving it just plugged in and powered the unit get warm at all.

So.... is it a Festivus miracle? Is it likely because my AKGs have low power demands? Would strict 48v mics be too much and then we would see the flaw of my system? I don't have any other mics to test on or I would.

Opinions?
Title: Re: Question about "underpowering" the UA-5
Post by: Massive Dynamic on May 22, 2012, 10:04:35 PM
In my experience, the digital out will stop sending a signal when voltage drops to about the 7v mark. Are you powering the mics using the phantom power, or are they battery-powered? What are you using for a recorder and how is it connected to the UA-5?
Title: Re: Question about "underpowering" the UA-5
Post by: BlingFree on May 23, 2012, 02:46:04 PM
Phantom power is on and the AKGs will take 12-48v. I'm recording with the Marantz PMD-620. I'm using the L/R RCA output and a simple RCA > 3.5mm stereo cable.

It says it in my sig I forgot to mention that the UA-5 has the BM2p+ mod. I'm also powering everything with the i.Sound Power Max 16000mah USB battery pack.