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Gear / Technical Help => Battery Boxes, Preamps, Mixers, ADCs, and Processors => Topic started by: Humbug on July 11, 2014, 06:43:32 PM

Title: JK Labs PP9 3 wire battery box - are there two ways of wiring TA3F's?
Post by: Humbug on July 11, 2014, 06:43:32 PM

A long time ago I retired a little used PP9 battery box, because I wasn't that impressed with it. The AT933 (853) mics were sent off to Canada for rewiring to suit a CA9100 pre-amp, and they sound nice.

I recently had to put the PP9 back into service, and I believe I'm getting mild distortion.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/Humbug66/Taping%20stuff/item101PP93wireboxpic2.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Humbug66/media/Taping%20stuff/item101PP93wireboxpic2.jpg.html)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v521/Humbug66/Taping%20stuff/item101PP93wirebox.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Humbug66/media/Taping%20stuff/item101PP93wirebox.jpg.html)

So, my question is - are there two ways to wire a 3-wire battery box and TA3F terminated mics? And if this is my issue, how can I fix it? Some kind of female TA3F to male TA3F adaptor between mics and bb?

Help...

Title: Re: JK Labs PP9 3 wire battery box - are there two ways of wiring TA3F's?
Post by: Humbug on July 11, 2014, 06:54:09 PM

Apologies if you don't like this style of music (glam rock) - Nuno Bettencourt on guitar.

Title: Re: JK Labs PP9 3 wire battery box - are there two ways of wiring TA3F's?
Post by: Humbug on July 11, 2014, 07:12:49 PM

I was running two sources, this (AT831s) sounds cleaner to my ears.

SPCMC2(AT831)>SPSPSB10>iRiver H140 rockboxed

Title: Re: JK Labs PP9 3 wire battery box - are there two ways of wiring TA3F's?
Post by: datbrad on July 17, 2014, 06:43:55 PM

I don't hear a huge difference in overall distortion between the samples, the AT933s are more bass heavy, and not as bright. I do hear a little bit of what sounds like input overloading during a few of the strongest transients on both samples. There are two standard ways to wire a TA3F the same as XLR, balanced  terminated pin 2 hot, pin 3 cold, pin 1 ground, or unbalanced with a wire joining pin 1 and pin 3. I don't know what you had in the rest of the chain after the mics, but if the output from the JK Labs box is hotter than what you usually run, it may be your recorder that is actually overloading at the line input. I don't here anything that sounds like something malfunctioning. This is probably the first thing you did, but if not I would consider a new set of 9v batts that are alkaline. Those heavy duty ones I see in the pics have weaker current and decay faster than alkalines.

Good luck !

Title: Re: JK Labs PP9 3 wire battery box - are there two ways of wiring TA3F's?
Post by: Humbug on July 31, 2014, 01:05:31 PM

Thanks for the reply.

That's a really old picture of the PP9 battery box - I normally run Duracell Ultra's, and use a voltmeter to check they're healthy.

I'm 99% sure the PP9 is wired differently to the AT standard for mini-XLR's, and that there is distortion common to AT853's that are wired incorrectly /  2 wire.

I'm also 99% sure the mics are wired correctly..so I need a really terrific mic cable builder to make an adaptor cable between the mini XLR's of the mics and the input to the battery box.

Anyone brave enough to take this on?