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Re: Equipment advice for bird recording

Subject: Re: Equipment advice for bird recording
From: "Ralph Paonessa" <>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 20:26:44 -0000
--- In  Charles Bragg
<> wrote:
> At 05:21 AM 5/24/2005 +0000, Ralph Paonessa wrote:
>
> >2. I can't afford a Telinga parabola setup. I currently own an
Audio-
> >Technica AT815b shotgun mike that I suspect is not very good
quality.
> >Is a Sennheiser ME66 or ME67 with K-6 or K-6P reasonably good for
my
> >purposes -- that's about the limit of what I can spend now.
>
>         The Sennheisers are 'better' but the AT815b *is* a good
quality mike - and as a bonus it runs for weeks on a single AA cell.
Just plug into your minidisc and go. If portability is a question,
then a shotgun is easier to carry than a parabola.
>         Why do you suspect it's "not very good quality"? It may be
that the mike is not matching up with your recorder, or there is a
flaw in the recorder mike circuitry. If you want to try repairing
the Marantz, you might consider getting the Shure A96F Line Matching
Transformer which changes XLR to a 1/8" plug and I quote from the
user guide, "It increases the signal level from the microphone,
provides a balanced input, and prevents distortion due to the d.c.
bias typically found in camcorder microphone inputs."
>
>         If you haven't used it for bird recording, why not try it
with a new minidisc now? I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
>
>         -- Chuck
>

Thanks. I was confusing this with another microphone. I bought the
AT815b a while ago but then had so much trouble with the Marantz
that I never was able to evaluate how well it really works for my
purposes. (I'd forgotten how much I'd paid for the AT815b!)

So the AT815b should be a good "match" for the Mini-Disk? And at any
point should I consider a preamp? (I only know enough about preamps
to know that they exist, and wasn't clear whether such a thing was
useful or needed with what I expect will be weak signals from
distant birds.

I guess I'll order the MZ-RH10 and jump right in!






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