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Re: Sennheiser MKH 110

Subject: Re: Sennheiser MKH 110
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 18:09:04 -0500
jyoung1113 wrote:
> Greetings all,
>   I just took delivery of a Sennheiser MKH 110 and need a bit of 
> guidance.
>   The mic came with the plug that plugs into and screws on the end.
> The problem I have is wiring. I don't know what the order is for the
> 3 pin (XLR?) female plug. I am using a production made XLR cable and 
> cut off the end nearest the mic. 
>   The paperwork that came with the mic says that the wiring is a "B".

It's special to that mic, it's unbalanced, and non-standard. I have a 
scan of the powering circuit diagram that Sennheiser gave me linked off 
my SASS/MKH-110 page, so you can make your own interpretation:
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/sass_mkh110.html
Note the B up in the corner of the scan...

It takes 8 volt power, spec is plus/minus 1 volt, do not connect the 
cable shield to the connector if you intend to use the mics in pairs. It 
does ok to do that in singles, though it's not what Sennheiser is 
showing, (we think). It's a positive ground sort of setup. It draws 8 ma.

In my power setup I used a 10k trimpot to drop voltage off a 9 volt 
battery. The filter cap I used is 470 mfd. I use 1 battery, but the rest 
is split for the two mics. I run both plus and minus of the signal 
through 4.7 mfd mylar caps. The plus of the signal at the mic (pin 1) is 
carrying about 5-6 volts DC compared to the minus (pin 2) so you must 
block that DC off. They show a 2nd 5 volt battery, I did not do any of 
that part, it's some sort of optional way.

In any case you will have to work out powering, it's not phantom or T 
power. I know the mics are happy with voltages ranging from 6-9 volts, 
though I've not done critical tests at all voltages. My system starts 
the mics off at full charge at 8.8 volts and drops with the battery voltage.

As far as connecting all that into the XLR cable, only pins 1 & 2 
connect, and that through the caps. Pin 3 at the mic is 8 volts plus and 
does not connect to the XLR. The negative of the 8 volts is connected to 
pin 2 of the mic. Run the shield no farther than the cable going to the 
mic, but not the mic connector (you can shield the cable). I keep the 
shield isolated from signal minus. I shrink wrapped my cable's shield so 
it would not accidentally contact the connector. I've not had a problem 
having the mic housings floating so far.

Anyway, my SASS/MKH-110 is running fine finally going that way.

Walt




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