Topic: AT8532 stealthability?

[tbugsett]

As I wrote in my previous and first post here I'm a long time taper who has decided to gear up a little bit.  I've taped for over 12 years now with my trusty old D7 and CSB's which I've never really been very pleased with. So recently I bought a new Edirol R-09 and I've decided to buy the SP-CMC-8 mics. But as I've read and read and searched and searched here for weeks now I've come to the conclusion that I want them run on phantom power. As per Chris at Sound Professionals recommendations I'm really tempted to go for the CMC-8>AT8532 power supply.

But does anyone have any experience with the AT8532? I'm particulary wondering how stealth it is.  There's no info whatsovever on the SP site:
http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/AT8532

Does anybody know the size of it?  Particulary as I need two of them I'm wondering if it's practical for stealthing our should I go for the CMC-8 phantom mod>Denecke PS-2>R-09 instead?

I might add that the few CMC-8>AT8532 combo recordings I've heard sounds night and day better than most if not all of the standard CMC-8>SP various battery boxes I've heard.

So if the AT8532 is practical for a stealth setup I'm anxious to know!

Thor

[M]

If you wanna go phantom then I would recommend getting the mics with the at adapters attached (not the samson ones in the sp mod).  This will be a little bulky setup for stealth tho cause the adapters are big and the ps2 is kinda too.  This is definatly do-able tho.

I could be wrong here but think the at8532 boxes are similar to the "3-wire batt boxes" that a bunch of at853 users have moved to.  So I would recommed getting a one of those instead.

You can also have the mics modded so they will handle higher spl levels and then just use a regular batt box.

I have used a sp batt box, samson adapters with a ps2 and a church audio st9100.  I would recomend the church audio setup.


Edit to say:  I'm quite sure that they are stealthable but I don't think that they are the best option.

[Evil Taper]

There are many tapers who use the audio technica miniatures for stealth taping.  They'll perform fine at less intensive shows, acoustic sets and venues without bombs of bass being thrown at you.  When I was taping with at853>spbbox the mics overloaded at a few loud shows and caused distortions in the recordings.  A better stealthing option is the DPA4060/4061 miniature omnidirectionals.  You can find them floating around used for 400 or less per pair and they are easily powered with a sound pros battery box.  Tiny rig and no chance of every overloading the mics.  Oh yeah, they offer a much higher sound quality than the AT853s.

[M]

I think it would be fair to say that the 4061's are better depending on the situation.  Sometimes omni's just don't cut it.

[Evil Taper]

i'll agree with that, but they don't overload or distort like the 853s.

[Belexes]

I have 853's and run them into a SP battery box and never had a problem with them overloading.  I run them into the "line in" of my M1.  If you use the "mic in", you'll run into brickwalling problems for loud concerts.