Topic: Microtrack II 1/8" Mic Line In and 1/4" causing tape deck meters to peak

[trysomekef]

connecting from old sony tape deck, via rca cables to 1/8" mic line in, causes signal level meters on source tape deck to peak... is this normal?

thanks!

[trysomekef]

i read somewhere else.. that these microtrack II's have 3.5 volts coming out of the 1/8" and 1/4" jacks at all times, to power certain t mics, even when phantom power is off. wonder if this is what is causing the meters to peak constantly???.. and if it's bad for the units i may want to record from.. i.e. cd player, record player, tape player.. i don't want 3.5 volts pumped into this hifi gear do i??? i mean, i paid a lot of money for the cd player, record player, receiver...

and if i go from the tape out of my vintage sansui receiver.. i want to know that the mircrotrack is not slowly frying my vintage receiver with 3.5 volts....

weird...

[NOLAfishwater]

connecting from old sony tape deck, via rca cables to 1/8" mic line in, causes signal level meters on source tape deck to peak... is this normal?

thanks!

you need to get some specially wired cables to get around the noise problem. 

The 1 ring (or black strip) divide the cable into a Tip & Sleeve (TS), and with 2 rings, into a Tip, Ring, and Sleeve (TRS). The 1/4" inputs on the MicroTrack II must be connected to a balanced source using TRS cables. When using an unbalanced source and/or 1/4" TS cables, a clicking noise will be heard.

read here:
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=106690.0

[trysomekef]

there is no noise problem when recording.. it sounds crystal clear. the problem is when i connect the mt2 to any tape deck with level meters.. the meters peak on the tape deck not the mt2. other than that recording wounds great.

[trysomekef]

sony dual deck tape player > microtrack II (via rca outs on tape deck to 1/8" input on microtrack II) phantom power off.

this set up will cause the level meters on the sony tape player to peak, as if the microtrack is sending juice back into the tape deck... just checked it on an old yamaha md8 multitrack recorder and it does the same thing to it as well.. level meters are pegged.. can anyone set up a similar situation and let me know if it does the same thing??? is my mt2 fried???

recordings sound great.. just don't want to fry my cd players and other gear with the mt2 pumping juice into them..

[greenone]

The 1/8" on an MTII is mic in only. If you want to go line in, you've gotta go through the 1/4" inputs as NOLAfishwater says.

That being said, I would do everything I could to avoid going line in...the A/D circuitry on these things is just not that good. I own an MT2496 and run my tape deck through a home DAT first before going S/PDIF in.