Topic: mke2 gold with samson pm4?

[M]

Can I use my mke2 gold mics with my samson pm4 adapters?  I'm assuming I can because it is a three wire design but I'm sure someone out there knows more about this than me .

Thanks

[CHURCH-AUDIO]

Yes if you know what the pin configuration is for the sampson preamp. You need to make sure you have the bias pin going to the red wire on the MKE2 ( ON OLDER MODELS ) it is the red colored wire (older model wire needs to be scraped with a razor blade) and the white / yellow wire is the output and last but not least the sheild or copper wire goes to the correct pin

One way to determine pin configuration is to get a connector that fits into the preamp input and use a volt meter once phantom is applyed find the + or bias pin by probing between pin 1 - should be ground and pin 3 should be the bias pin if you see a voltage of around 1.5 volts to 10 volts and pin 3 is the possitive with respect to pin 1 then you know you have ground on pin 1 and bias on pin 3 and the only one left is pin 2 signal with some preamps not all! preamps they use a 4 or 5 pin connector the reason they do this is they are "dual input" meaning one pin is line level one is mic if your a handy guy you can mod the preamp with a SPST switch and have it so you can select between the two pins this is mostly done on wireless transmiters but I have seen shure do it with some of the preamps they make.

Can I use my mke2 gold mics with my samson pm4 adapters?  I'm assuming I can because it is a three wire design but I'm sure someone out there knows more about this than me .

Thanks

[M]

The samson pm4's are actualy phantom power adapters.  I have been using them with my at943/853's. They are for condenser mics I'm just not sure if that means all or just a couple. 

My next question would be, is there a big advantage in running the mke2's with phantom over a batt box?  I know that is dosen't matter for dpa4060's, but with my at mic's there is a very noticable improvement over the sp-batt box. 

[poorlyconditioned]

The samson pm4's are actualy phantom power adapters.  I have been using them with my at943/853's. They are for condenser mics I'm just not sure if that means all or just a couple. 

My next question would be, is there a big advantage in running the mke2's with phantom over a batt box?  I know that is dosen't matter for dpa4060's, but with my at mic's there is a very noticable improvement over the sp-batt box. 

"Three wire" power will help any condenser mic.  So both AT853/943 and MKE2 will benefit from this.  Three wire power can be provided by the phantom adapter or just by wiring the battery box differently.  (See www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~mannr/AT853 for my three wire setup for AT853.  You can use the same one for your Senns.)

OK, as far as I know DPA are different. They are two wire, that's true.  But there is some mysterious circuit inside that prevents overloading like other standard 2-wire setups.  I've got some hints, but I really don't understand how it works.   Others feel free to chime in here.

Oh yeah, +T to Chris Church for the reply.

  Richard

[M]

I would like to go the three wire batt box route but I'm not too handy with a soldering iron just yet.

Thanks guys for all your help.

[CHURCH-AUDIO]

No they both provide 9-10 volts if they are designed properly.

The samson pm4's are actualy phantom power adapters.  I have been using them with my at943/853's. They are for condenser mics I'm just not sure if that means all or just a couple. 

My next question would be, is there a big advantage in running the mke2's with phantom over a batt box?  I know that is dosen't matter for dpa4060's, but with my at mic's there is a very noticable improvement over the sp-batt box. 

[poorlyconditioned]

No they both provide 9-10 volts if they are designed properly.

The samson pm4's are actualy phantom power adapters.  I have been using them with my at943/853's. They are for condenser mics I'm just not sure if that means all or just a couple. 

My next question would be, is there a big advantage in running the mke2's with phantom over a batt box?  I know that is dosen't matter for dpa4060's, but with my at mic's there is a very noticable improvement over the sp-batt box. 

Umm.  I beg to disagree.  Both standard battery box and phantom modules provide similar voltages (3-9V say), but the phantom modules provide "3-wire" power whereas most *standard* battery boxes provide "2-wire" power.  I show a schematic for a "3-wire" battery box on my webpage (www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~mannr/AT853).  This works with both AT and MKE2 mics.

Notes:
- This battery box is not my invention.  Lots of people use it or something similar.  But most of the standard (soundprofessionals, etc) are two-wire types.
- MKE2 come in both 2 and 3 wire versions.  You have to know the exact model number to tell.

  Richard