Hi dogmusic,
I took a close listen to the recording you made of the piano. To me, it seems like there is a little distortion on the attacks of chords/notes but only in the left ear. I listened with headphones a couple of times to make sure I wasn't imagining it. Not sure if it is the left mic or something else in the signal chain but I'm certain there is something wrong still. It has a kind of tamborine/snare quality and is more pronounced on low notes. Maybe someone else can take a close listen and let us know if they hear it too.
Hope your head feels better.
-MIQ
Hi MIQ,
Thank you for your close listening. I am afraid you are right. There is still a problem with the one mic, which was plugged into the left channel.
When I did the second of my three tests [DPA 4060's > RCA adapter > SP-SPSB-8 batt box > D50 mic-in, no PIP, rec level 4.0, mics under the pillow], I had set the mic/line switch on the D50 to "mic".
(Despite the fact that there are separate inputs on the D50 for "mic" and "line", there is also a switch on the side which you have to change according to your input.)
When I did the last test (recording the piano), I plugged the battery box into the line-in instead of mic-in,
but I forgot to change the switch from "mic" to "line". The excessive level of hiss/noise in the left channel mic became much less apparent in that setting --- not sure why the D50 operates that way.
But the mic is indeed not working well. Running another test going mic-in revealed the noise to still be there.
I'm in touch with the ebay merchant and I'll let you all know how this turns out.
Again, thanks MIQ and everyone else for your help.
And thanks for your well-wishes too, MIQ. I wish my knock on the head had turned out to be good luck for the mic.