Topic: Countryman B3 stepping down phantom power

[setboy]

Does anyone know if it is safe to step down power to some countryman B3's using samson PM4's?

I thought i had a working battery box to run with them, but it seem it is only out putting one channel for some annoying reason. The only other way i can think of running them is if i can step down phantom power to the right power for them. 

[ArchivalAudio]

I sure don't know but I believe that
Chris Church may have an answer?

[setboy]

I don't know much about mics, but i can't think of any reason it wouldn't work.

[ArchivalAudio]

Hey
perhaps Richard - aka illconditioned 

would be better to answer this questiuon
from this thread
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=136000.0
he posted this quote

Hey, hold on!  IMO the B3 are one of the best sounding omni mics out there.  I think the only better one is the Nevaton MCE400, and the B3 are close to this.  Better than DPA406x too.  My personal theory is that the B3 and Nevaton sound so good because they have a metal (stainless steel) diaphragm.  The only problem I have had with the B3 is consistency/matching.  If I could get perfectly matched B3, I would be extremely happy.

  Richard

not sure but he may have a clue about powering them

I don't know what the Sampson P4 is
but generally I'd personally stay away from anything sampson

[ArchivalAudio]

Also from the same above^^^^^ thread

Hi all, I will second the motion for the Countryman B3's.  I bought a set of stereo Countryman B3 low sensitivity model.  They offer them in normal sensitivity and low sensitivity.  I also have bought the DPA 4060 stereo mics kit and also the Church Audio CA-11 cardoids recently.  I compared them all and by far the best sounding one is the Countryman B3's.  They are better than the DPA 4060's and cost about 1/3 the  price!  They also come with a nice carrying pouch case along with extra high freq boost capsules and alligator type clips which are more useful for your purpose than what the expensive DPA 4060 stereo kit comes with.

One caveat, the Countryman B3's don't come with 1/8" stereo mini plug connectors standard.  I bought mine hardwired to their XLR phantom power adapters and thus have to use them with XLR mic inputs.  But they sound really accurate and great compared to all my other miniature binaural style mics.  DPA 4060 is way overrated and I regret spending so much money on them.  They are nice mics, but they are just not as accurate as my Countryman B3's. Also the DPA 4060's are so sensitive that they will overload my Sound Devices 702 preamo stage with loud band music even when I set the Sound Devices 702 gain level to the absolute lowest level it can go to!  Wow! They are sensitive.  I should have gotten the DPA4061's on hindsight.  But the B3's are the ones I would go with for best musical results.  The CA11's are deficient in bass in most cases I've tried them in, not bad, but not the best neither.  Countryman B3's recommended highly!

BTW, when I ordered my Countryman B3 mics, I asked my dealer to specify a "Stereo matched pair if possible"... I got a nicely matched set from them!  So it is possioble if you specifically ask them to order it that way.
Countryman support line and service however leaves me feeling cold as they did not ever respond to any of my questions I asked of them before and after I bought their mics from an authorized dealer.  fyi.

[listener2]

Hi, just dropped by and can help you out a bit.  I just measured my Countryman B3 mics power voltage at the output of its hardwired XLR phantom power adapter as plugged into my Sound Devices 702 recorder's phantom powered mic inputs.  The voltage I measured that is going to the B3 mic capsules directly is 11 to 12 VDC.  The red wire is positive and the shield is negative polarity setting.
So that's all you need to know to get started building your own battery box for them.  I think you can use the standard 9V battery box schematic to power them and they will work fine.  They may not have as much voltage presented to them as the 11v to 12v output by their XLR adapaters, but I think you can use them or look for a small higher voltage battery than 9v to use in your battery box.

[dactylus]

Thread mark.