Common wiring of mono microphones to 1/8″ stereo TRS male plugs?

Audio

Common wiring of mono microphones to 1/8″ stereo TRS male plugs?

Posted by Kirk Darling on March 31, 2015 at 1:50 pm

I know that Rode’s mono mics intended for DSLR use are wired to replicate the mono signal to both left and right channels. But can that be considered reliably common among manufacturers? Is that how Sennheiser wireless lavs receivers are wired, for instance?

I’m wondering because I’m investigating adapters to convert various mono mic sources (including both Rode and Sennheiser) from 1/8 TRS to XLR. An Internet scan reveals people with success and complaints with different adapters, and the complaints sound as if the issue is that the 1/8 TRS plugs of different manufactures are doing different things in their output wiring.

Ty Ford replied 11 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

Richard Crowley
March 31, 2015 at 4:06 pm

NO you cannot assume anything. As you have correctly noted, the combination of several different wiring standards, along with the nearly useless marketing prose of the people selling cables/adapters makes this problem even greater than it ever was before.

OTOH, I noted, a few days ago when answering a similar question on another forum, that Hosa is now publishing the actual wiring diagrams for their adapters. That is enormously helpful when trying to determine whether a particular product will work for a particular situation.

For example: https://hosatech.com/product/xvm-100f/
Ty Ford
April 1, 2015 at 4:49 pm

Hello Kirk and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

“I’m investigating adapters to convert various mono mic sources (including both Rode and Sennheiser) from 1/8 TRS to XLR.”

If you’re ready for a “real mic’, I would think you’d be better served by buying an appropriately made mic with an XLR connector rather than trying to McGyver a 1/8” (probably) unbalanced mic connector hardwired to a “DSLR Mic” mic to an XLR connector.

The difference between the cheap DSLR mics and a real mic can be quite audible.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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Kirk Darling
April 1, 2015 at 11:07 pm

I’m not using DSLR microphones for my usable audio. I use a Rode DSLR mic for sync audio in the camera and XLR wired Sennheiser and Shure microphones. My concern here is in the cases that I have to go with my wireless Sennheiser system or some other wireless system that uses unbalanced output at the receiver.
Ty Ford
April 1, 2015 at 11:32 pm

Kirk,

Thanks for the clarification.

My Sennheiser G3 receivers came with 1/8″ to XLR cables.

Yours didn’t?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

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