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Re: Oops, I meant Shure WL-183

Subject: Re: Oops, I meant Shure WL-183
From: "David K=FCrland" hdkurland
Date: Thu Aug 3, 2006 11:46 pm (PDT)
--- In  "Danny Meltzer"
<> wrote:
>
> David,
>
> My understanding is that the Sound Professionals preamp assures the
> best performance of these mics.  If you can find a power supply that
> can deliver power in the same way then I don't see why amping the
> signal in the 702 wouldn't work well.
>
> My Africa recordings will be up very soon and I will post the web
> address here when I have the site uploaded.  I have just been
deciding
> which webhost to use.
>
> Danny
>


Danny,
After some poking around I discovered there seem to be 2 flavors of
the Shure 183: WL183, intended to be used with a wireless transmitter
or a wired version, MX183, that comes with a phantom powered barrel
pre-amp (RK183PK) or a battery/phantom powered pre-amp (MX1BP).  The
WL183 can also be used with the barrel pre-amp although they seem
hard to find in this country.

There is a difference in the specs:
WL-183:
   Sensitivity: =9640.0 dBV/Pa
   Max SPL: 125.0 dB
   Output Noise (A=96weighted): 22.5 dB SPL
   Dynamic Range: 102.5 dB
MX-183:
   Sensitivity: =9627.5 dBV/Pa
   Max SPL: 116.7 dB
   Output Noise (A=96weighted): 20.5 dB SPL
   Dynamic Range: 96.2 dB

Can anyone comment on the different values; is 2 dB noticeable in
self noise? What about the dynamic range, 102.5 vs 96.2? I wonder if
the differences are due to the different powering schemes?

Dan had some good info:

>That was the only Shure power supply for the 183s I was aware of and
>as you see, it is also a preamp.

They call it a preamp, but it is really a power supply with a few dB
of gain. It puts out mic level. A real preamp would put out line
level.

>But this gives +48 whereas my preamp
>give plug-in power, but my 183s were rewired for this by Chris at SP.

It would be powered by the phantom power in your recorder. It sends
PIP to the mics. Unneccessary to have a separate battery preamp when
you have an excellent preamp with phantom in the recorder.

>I am not sure I have seen a "power supply only" for the 183s, but I
>guess there's one out there somewhere. The 183s come with TA3
TA4

>connectors out of the box and to interface that with a normal Denecke
>phantom power blue box or whatver would require rewiring or some
crazy
>adapter at best.

It would require precisely the Shure "preamp" or something like it.
Shure also makes a barrel "preamp" for the 183 that doesn't have the
battery option. I have both versions, and also a couple of Samson
phantom-to-lavalier supplies that also work, tho they need an adaptor
for Shure's mic plug.

-Dan Dugan

I thought to re-wire the WL183s to mini XLRs and then plug those into
a SP battery box with normal size XLRs on the side that plugs into
the recorder. BTW the WL183 is ~$80 less expensive than the MX183.

Many thanks to all for the discussion and ideas. This is a very
experienced and knowledgably group and a great resource!

-David










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