have you ever had distortion in your recordings at loud shows? if not, don't worry about it.
If you do, then a Church Audio preamp would make up for the gain you will lose with the 4.7k mod....
Even at quiet shows, the mod *will* help. You know all those people saying "AT 853 will sound best with phantom power", well, the 4.7k mod is providing a very similar driving condition that the phantom adapters do. (I've traced the circuit. The AT853 adapters supply about 3V and the FET has a source resistor of 5.1k. It has a driving transistor and a transformer after that, but the mics themselves are powered in a similar way to Church's 4.7 k mod.)
Yes, it (the mod) will reduce mic sensitivity (by anywhere between 6 and 10dB people claim), but it *will not* increase the noise floor. People that see the noise floor going up are seeing *preamp noise* and not *mic noise*.
Here is my advice:
- moderate to loud shows (anything with a PA basically): either
1) AT853 or Church Cards with 4.7k mod > battery box > Edirol R09. Plenty of gain, no need for extra preamp.
2) above mics > battery box > Minidisc (line in). Use (good and clean) gain in MD line input.
- acoustic/quiet shows: either:
1) same mics + Church pre > Edirol R09. Here you need lower noise of Church Pre.
2) same mics > battery box > Minidisc (low sens mic in). MD preamp is good and has low noise.
Oh yeah, if you want to use a poor line input, like iRiver or NJB3, you need the Church preamp.
Richard
PS: Can someone please archive this??? Should be more widely known. Thanks.