Thanks, Raimund.
It's pretty obvious that it's impossible to improve the noise performane of a
good microphone and I agree with you.
What we are looking for is just more gain than what is normally available on
the
stock mic preamps, as clean as we can get it.
You and Rane have very well characterized the mic self-noise and stock mic
preamp noise floors and one can't refute that fact of life (and physics!).
Assuming the mics are are the order of a TLM-103 [7 dBA self-noise, -117dBu],
as
we increase the gain on a 'perfect' preamp, at some point the self-noise of
that
mic will be audible and of course the dynamic range of the recorder
is compromised and the clipping level is greatly reduced. OK, that's fine. One
can argue [and folks already have] that at some point things begin to be
sub-optimal according to the 'norm' that people follow for nature recording.
But, we will deal with the consequences as we need to when amplifying 'tiny'
sounds. I believe that it is important for all of us to respect one another's
approach to doing whatever they feel is important to accomplish their work.
Diversity is good, I've learned many things from "the other side of the fence".
Let's keep creativity alive.
'Nuff said.
- Greg
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