You have lots of options. Most of them smaller, lighter, more compact.
The key things the MMA6000 does:
A) Powers the microphones (which need between 5V and 9V PIP).
B) Provides gain (which you might not actually need if you are using 4060).
C) Is unbalanced 2-wire per channel in/out.
A few options allow for eliminating the external preamp altogether:
1) If your recorder provides all of the above you may be able to run the mics straight into it using a simple stereo "Y" adapter (2x microdot > stereo mini-plug). There are now several recorders available which provide 5V PIP, making them suitable. I went from using an MMA6000, to various Church Audio preamps, to plugging the mics direct into a Deity PR-2 recorder which is pager-sized tiny and provides all those things. The entire rig from mics to recorder is only about 1/10 the size of the MMA6000 itself. Problem with that was 4060 is too sensitive for the PR-2, and the relatively hot output from the mics causes overload. Due to that I needed to shift to using less sensitive 4061 in place of 4060, which has worked nicely into the PR-2.
2) If your recorder features balanced inputs with phantom power, you can run input adapters which convert the phantom power to PIP out to the microphones and provide balanced XLR connections to the the recorder. The circuitry is neatly contained within the XLR housing. Looks like a simple cable with and XLR at one end and a microdot or some other connector type to the microphone at the other. Since it's using a balanced XLR input (which generally support a wider range of input levels) typically either 4060 or 4061 can be used. This is an attractive option in that there are no additional equipment or batteries to manage, only whatever is powering the recorder itself. This makes for a simple and robust option. I use number of Naiant PFAs in my open recording rig, accommodating two channels of DPA miniature omnis and four channels of DPA miniature supercardioids direct in to the recorder. There are a number of manufacturers making these relatively simple things.
^those options can be attractive in eliminating the need for any additional external-preamp-like device and the interconnect between it to the recorder. The following options retain an external device between the mics and recorder.
3) If you only need to power the microphones and the input gain provided by the recorder is sufficient for level control, you might run a simple battery-box to power the microphones, and out from that to the recorder.
4) A substitute stereo preamp that replaces the MMA6000 (as per your original inquiry). The afore mentioned and currently available Riotbox, a second hand Naiant Tinybox or other small Naiant preamp, various Church-Audio preamps, other preamps I'm overlooking that provide 5-9v power and unbalanced inputs.
5) An XLR input external preamp along with XLR adapters as in 2).
Topic: What is out there to replace the DPA MMA6000? (Read 298 times)