Topic: SPC4s > ??? > MT2496

[Gizby]

My current rig is SP-CMC-2 > SP-SPSB-1 > MT. I'm wanting to upgrade my mics, and after a little research on here, the Studio Projects C4s seem to be a good choice within my pricerange. Of course the battery box will become quite worthless with these. Now everywhere that I look, any mention of C4s is directly proceeded by some mod variation of the UA-5. Coming by one of these seems to be kind of hard, so I'd rather not deal with that. The other two main options that I know of are the PS-2 and the Rolls PB224. I don't have a great burning desire to jump into an ADC (especially since I don't want to spend the money on an AD-20 right now), so I figure I can just get the preamp and deal with cables and adapters for bridging the gap between that and the recorder. A bit of a philistine setup, but so be it.

Of the two choices I listed, is one intrinsically better or more desirable than the other? I'm almost never in a situation where I have to stealth, so size isn't too big a concern. I generally record at 24/48, so are either going to be ill-advised in recording with these parameters? Are there any other good options, like should I really try to track down a modded UA-5? Also, when I began recording I started out with a minidisc recorder. In comparison, the MicroTrack seems much hotter and I have to be much more aware of clipping. Will any combination with the C4s introduce a lot of gain that could lead to trouble?

Well, that's a mouthful. Thanks in advance for any advice that will be offered. I've only been taping for a couple of years, and I really don't know all that much after looking through a lot of the information on these forums. So much to learn.

[Brian Skalinder]

My current rig is SP-CMC-2 > SP-SNow everywhere that I look, any mention of C4s is directly proceeded by some mod variation of the UA-5. Coming by one of these seems to be kind of hard, so I'd rather not deal with that.

They're recommended for good reason - excellent value, i.e. strong performance at a reasonable price.  As for hard to come by, at least at the moment anyway there are three in the YS:

T+
T
W+

But if they don't fit your budget, then a phantom power source > MT may work.  And if you need extra gain at low cost, pick up a pair of line transformers.

[Gizby]

Oh, I'm sure they're excellent considering all the shows I've heard them used in. But I'm looking to spend, at most, ~$500 right now, $300 of which will be taken up by the C4s. Again, I realize that I am aiming for less than perfect goals right now, but it is a step up regardless and one which I would be most comfortable with.

[Ryan Sims]

If you buy the mics on ebay you'll save a good bit off that $300, and if you want to go retail, bhphotovideo.com sells them for around $260, so that gives you a little more wiggle room.
Of course, you could always dump the MT and pick up something cheaper (iRiver) to add a little cash to the stack, if you're not set on 24-bit.

[Gizby]

Thanks for the B&P reference. I've usually been a bit wary of their prices as they've seemed a tad high on many items, but that's a pretty good price.

I'm now considering putting down a little more cash than I had originally planned to get some flavor of the UA-5. All I know is that, unmodified, it is designed to only work with a USB port on a computer. As far as the mods go, all I ever really see is 'to be sure to get one that is digimodded'. I see the names every so often, but I really have no idea what the differences are between them. Is there a list somewhere that lists the differences between them? Are they generally all digimodded, or are some just finetuned for better performance? Thank you for your time and answers.

[Gizby]

As far as the mods go, all I ever really see is 'to be sure to get one that is digimodded'. I see the names every so often, but I really have no idea what the differences are between them. Is there a list somewhere that lists the differences between them? 

check out the ua5 faq for more of an explanation on the various oade mods.  http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=14389.0

Ah, exactly what I was in need of. Thanks!

Strike up another one to "We have the Archive for a reason".