I have SP's AT853's, and I've been tinkering around with good results. I read elsewhere on this board that you can safely apply 18V to bias voltage mics (basically anything with a stereo miniplug). Knowing I had a loud concert coming up to tape (Dream Theater) I started experimenting.
Good news: it worked and there was a lot less distortion. The concert was fairly loud (I've heard louder, I've heard quieter [I was third row, right by some of the speakers]). There were still occasional spots where the bass drum caused my mics to overload (but keep in mind the overload would've been way worse if I was just running 9V) and the recording is still very listenable.
In short, the AT853's still aren't what you'd ideally use to record mega loud stuff, but 18V helps them to be useable.
Points of interest:
I am curious, how much voltage can you apply before frying the mics?
They have a Batteries+ store near my house, and they sell mini 9V batteries (though I used a couple regular size 9V, and just used packing tape to hold it all together).
Actual voltage was closer to 20V, but that's just due to brand new batteries running at slightly higher voltages.
My left/right balance was compromised by 2.3 dB, but probably due to the fact that my battery box was homemade and my resistors aren't "matched".
I used omni caps for this show.
Anyways, this board is great and I love the info here, it's helped me find a JB3 and now discover the 18V method.
Topic: AT853 (Sound Pro version) and 18V (Read 1872 times)