Topic: brickwalling: AT943 unmod or new mics?

[whatboutbob]

hey folks,

so, i have a small dilemma.

My mics have been brickwalling slightly at louder rock-type shows (think Foo Fighters). Its a bit irritating, so I'm looking at upgrade options...I'd appreciate any advice y'all could offer.

I usually run sp-cmc10s (AT943s(h)) > SPSB6 > iriver h120.  I occassionally slip an AD20 in there for taper-friendly bands, though i nearly always stealth (its just easier than open here in Australia).

To give you some idea about my expectations, apart from when they're brickwalling (which is only abot 10% of the time), I'm actually really happy with how they sound.

I recently bought a PS2 (mini-out) thinking I'd swap out the batt box with it and unmod my mics to take phantom...and from all reports that sounds like it usually does the trick.  However, to my dismay, the phantom adapters aren't sold down here, so by the time outrageous shipping prices and materials/tools are brought into the equation, I'm looking at the unmod costing me at least $120...more if i want the roll-off that comes with the at8533x's.  This hurts a bit when the mics are only worth $200 at most ($150 maybe?).

Before I rush out and make more impulse purchases, I figured I'd check with y'all to see if it might be more worthwhile buying new mics.

I don't want to bias an opinion here...feel free to tell me to keep the mics if that's what you think i should do...i'll just write the rest of this post in case you think i should consider upgrading:

If so, what would you recommend?  I'm after cards or hypers.  Sorry, but I'm not interested in omnis...I've tried 'em in the past, but have found crowd-noise to be an issue.  Also, I just don't enjoy gigs as much when I'm overly concerned about what's going on around me.

I tape mostly in small to mid-size venues (jazz cafes with 50 ppl, pubs with 100-400 ppl, clubs/theatres 300->2000...i tape mostly pop and rock, but a bit of jazz and classical as well.

My budget would only be ~$200 + whatever I'd get for the cmc10s.

Thanks for your time.

[Weazel]

is the 3 wire batterybox not an option?

[setboy]

is the 3 wire batterybox not an option?

get a 3 wire batterybox (search round here and you should find some info on it) Or unmod them


i can't think of any other mics that have cards or hypers, that would not brickwall with a battery box


Raphael

[whatboutbob]

Thanks guys. I'd forgotten the 3-wire bb was an option.  I haven't soldered anything for years...so this should be...interesting...