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Re: Short on experience and long on Questions

Subject: Re: Short on experience and long on Questions
From: Dan Dugan <>
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 15:19:30 -0800
1GDW, you wrote,

>I would like to wire the microphones with a
>short cable that would then be coupled to a feed cable between my
>mini disk and microphone mount.  That way I could move the
>microphone between mounts without removing a long cable that may be
>feed through the mount handles.   I would like to minimize the
>possibility of the connectors shifting or coming disconnected.

Good plan.

>I
>plan to buy 3.5 mm connectors for any mini plugs in the chain.  I
>have found a locking cable connector that is mini size and I wonder
>if that would be a good selection for the joints in line.   They are
>used with some Sennheiser microphones.

With some wireless systems. They're of no use if there isn't a mating
jack with threads. I'd avoid 3.5mm connectors except where necessary.

>http://www.btx.com/products.asp?
>Go=3DSearch_Cat&Cat1=3DAudio+Connectors&Cat2=3D3%
>2E5mm+Mini&Cat3=3DCable+Mount&Page=3D2

Great prices, I've been paying a lot more for the Switchcrafts.

>Another option would be to wire the microphone wire with RCA jacks
>and then use an adapter to convert the two RCA lines to Stereo mini
>jack.  In that scenario I would have hard wired microphones to RCA
>and coupled into an adapter to convert to stereo mini.  More
>connections but more stable and greater contact area with the RCA.
>Is that correct?

I'd avoid RCAs, they're as unreliable as mini-stereos.

>One set of elements is going to be the Shure 183's
>and I would like to switch them between a dish mount and a mount
>that would allow separation of the elements to record ambient
>sounds.  To eliminate the excess wire in the dish where I would have
>little separation I could make the RCA connectors near the elements
>but for ambient separation use a patch cable of RCA.  Would it be
>advisable to incorporate two RCA connections between the elements
>and the stereo mini connection? Common sense tells me to minimize
>the connections but flexibility is important in this low budget
>setup. Will I experience loss of signal or additional noise in the
>RCA connectors?
>The cheapest option would be to use regular mini jack and plugs for
>all connections.
>Anyone care to weigh in on this to make a recommendation?
>1GDW

Two connectors in series (on the mic rig, then the extension cable to
the mini adaptor) are no problem if they're good connectors. I'd
suggest using the Switchcraft mini-xlr, the TA series. They latch.
I'd use the 4-pin and wire them the way Shure does on the WL183, so
they'd be interchangeable with off-the-shelf mics. Note that the
wireless mic convention runs the genders in the opposite direction to
full-sized XLRs; mic cable is female, device input is male.

-Dan


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