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Sony MD Microphone preamp... Design and settings...

Subject: Sony MD Microphone preamp... Design and settings...
From: "evertveldhuis <>" <>
Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 00:00:01 -0000
Hi guys,

After some searching I found this very nice document: 
http://www.geocities.com/ferocious_1999/md/sony_preamp.htm

It deals with the designs, and in short this is what it says:
- The preamp setting low gives a gain of 5.4 times
- The high setting gives a gain of 50 times.
  [own remark: In both cases this is done by letting the same signal
  go thru the same opamp, but with 1 resistor more or less in the
  circuit. So overdriving the opamp will happen at the same SPL no
  matter the switch position.]
- Models without a switch have a gain of roughly 25 times.

I haven't seriously tested the difference between the hi and low 
setting, I will do it next week. But what is the reccommended setting?

I always thought it was best to record to about -6dB to -3dB. I try 
having as little analog gain as possible, and having almost no 
digital cutting (attenuation). 
Because when you have a microphone preamp in a mixer (large studio 
device type) it is common - recommended, I should say - to have the 
fader at zero dB (no attenuation at the end of the chain), and have 
the preamp setting with as little as pre-gain as possible (as little 
gain as nessecary in the beginning of the chain)
This instead of a high gain at the beginning together with a high 
attenuation at the end of the chain because this way the hiss and 
noise is way higher then the first mentioned approach...

You might know that I always use the low gain setting of my MZR55 and 
have the digital recording level almost always at 75% to 100%.

Is this approach wrong? (judging from what I have read last week I 
tend to think it is wrong, but why?)

Should I use more analog gain and then digitally bring down the 
recording level? Has anybody already tested this with results that 
could be repeated by performing the same test based onm the test 
procedures?

Regards, Evert




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