Hey,
I'm thinking of buying a pair of stealth mics. I'm thinking of the AT 853. I've read the other recent posts on this subject and still have a couple of questions.
1. What is the difference between the 853A and the 853Rx? Which do I want?
I am not familiar with the A, but have the RX versions...the advantage with these is that they will take a full 48V of phantom powering.
2. I will be using 48v phantom power. The SP-CMC-4 is modified to run with a 9v battery, but SP will modify them to run on phantom power for an additional $78. This is the same configuration as the stock AT853, but costs less. Am I better off buying a pair of stock 853s from an AT dealer, or buying the SPs? Besides the power source, are there other differences between the SP and stock versions?
If you are buying the SP mics that give you the option to run on either the batt box or a full 48V, you will have some flexibility, allowing you to either carry a 48V power source or just the batt box. My opinion though..at about the same price, if you are going to us a 48V phantom source most of the time, I would just get the AT853Rx. Use the search function and you will see alot of the problems I was having with the non 48V units at bass heavy shows.
3. SP says that the SP-CMC-4 is a "matched pair" of mics. How important is this for these mics? If I purchase a pair of 853s from an authorized AT dealer, will they be matched? Do you think SP really matches their pairs?
I dont think it will be a big deal in this case. AT probably uses somewhat stringent manuf standards, and they will be relatively close. I have an unmatched pair and have not noticed one being any hotter, or sound different than the other.
4. The stock version of these mics comes with a 25' cable that is permanently mounted on the mic. It seems like this is a very long cable for a stealth mic that you carry on your body. Do people who purchase these mics modify the cable length?
You can modify the cable, there are instructions with the AT853RX to do it. Not difficult at all Mine are currently 7 ft each.
5. Are there any other stealth mics I should be looking at? Are the Core Sound High End Binaurals worth the extra money?
Thanks for the advice!
I am not a fan of the HEBs, if I was going to get a set of DPA capsule based mics, I would just buy the 4061s directly, wth the DPA powering module. But as some have stated earlier, this puts you at a different price point than what you were originally looking at.