Topic: How to tell if I have enough juice to power DPA 4061's correctly???

[Cheesecadet]

Hey all, I have a pair of DPA 4061's and a CA-9100 preamp v3.1.

I already have a PM into Chris about this, but am too eager to hear back from him as I have a show coming up soon and I want to run the DPAs for the first time.  I just don't know if Chris will respond in time.

I did plug them in last night for a bit and recorded some house music playing over the PA and it seemed to come out fine, but I am curious if there is a way to tell if they are being used at their optimum performance?

I had the mics at waist height as I was sitting.  The CA-9100 was at full, and my iriver 120 was set to about 18dB on the gain.  Levels seemed fine at the time and the music playing was not very loud to begin with (hence the 18dB gain on the iriver).

I was warned by Chris that the version of preamp i had may not power the DPAs correctly...so i am hoping someone here may have some additional insight for me.

Since I could hear something...does that mean it's fine?  Are there any consequences with noise floor or anything like that if the correct power is not supplied or would they just not pick up any sound at all???

Any help is truly appreciated! 

[Arni99]

DPA 4061 need 5V at least according to DPA specs.
I taped an amplified Jazz-rock-fusion show near the stacks with just the H120 (which provides 3,29V to the mics) and it came out fine without a battery box. BUT for really loud concerts I'd always use my 9 or 12V bbox.
Take care not to overload your irivers line-in-stage with your external preamp !!! Happened to me when i was taping speech HAHA and used too much gain from the external preamp!!!
The H120's line-in sensitivity is between a mic-in and line-in, hence it's NOT as insensitive as a standard LINE-IN...always take that into consideration!

Your preamp:
Use it as bbox at unity gain (max. 11 o'clock position of the gain knob).
Better at 9 or 10 o'clock to be on the safe side.
Or don't use it at all.
You dont really need a preamp with dpa4061 and your iriver. I've been using this setup for more than 2 years now and NEVER needed an external preamp.
Try to get a 9 or 12V bbox and you are fine.
 
 

[Scooter123]

I have that exact set up which Chris oversaw and approved and it works fine.