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Activity Forums Audio impedance transformers

  • impedance transformers

    Posted by Tom Davicory on December 25, 2008 at 5:58 pm

    Hi, i bought a shotgun mic, and a recorder but just realized that the impedance does not match. The mic has an impedance of 450 ohms (normal mode) and 1600 ohms (tele mode), while the recorder has an impedance of 1 mega ohm… This makes the audio really soft when i record. I know that i can just bump up the audio levels on the computer, but this adds fuzz, and other unwanted noise.

    Does anyone know of an impedance transformer that converts from 450 ohms to 1 mega ohm? All that i can find is transformers that only go up to 50 K ohms. If not, does anyone know of a company or website that sells these?

    Tom Davicory replied 17 years, 4 months ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Rodney Morris

    December 26, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    Which mic and recorder are you using?

    Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

  • Tom Davicory

    December 26, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    using schriber acoustic- 568 shotgun+ a recording device actually ment for guitar, its called line 6 backtrack (i know, i tried to cut back on costs).

  • Tom Davicory

    December 26, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    I also have another question: I find a lot of these transformers with great reviews, that say that it works well with shotgun mics, etc. Unfortunately they dont say what impedance it transforms too! Why not!?

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=423360&is=REG#reviews

    heres an example

  • Ty Ford

    December 27, 2008 at 10:15 am

    Hello Tom and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

    The good news is that impedance matching is not the problem. Most pro mics are around 50 Ohms to 200 Ohms. Input impedances on preamps are anywhere from 1 kOhm and up. 6 k , even 18 k are not unusual.

    The bad news is that you seem to have bought a very inexpensive mic and an inexpensive recorder that does not have a mic preamp. All mics need preamps. The +mic version seems to have an onboard mic, but the info does not mention a mic preamp, only an instrument input. Plug a guitar or keyboard into it and see how that does.

    https://line6.com/store/hardware.html?familyID=53

    In attempting to save money, you burned yourself. In the pro audio world we have a saying, “I can’t afford to buy cheap.”

    Perhaps if you could tell us exactly what you want to do with the gear we could help you better.

    Regards,

    Ty Ford

    Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
    Watch Ty play guitar

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  • Tom Delacarey

    December 27, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    yeah, i knew that i would encounter these kinds of problems, but i’m used to it, most of my equipment is stuff that arent ment to be put together, but i’ve messed around with and made work. The recorder was something that i already had to record my guitar with, so i thought that maybe it could double up with the mic i was getting.

    I want to use the microphone mainly for video’s, especially outdoors.

    This pre-amp (i dont know anything about audio gadgets) what is it, and can i buy one separately? or does it have to come with the recorder? I’m pretty sure that the line 6 uses the guitar amp for that. I have been trying to build myself a guitar amp, just for fun, and i know that the way i’m trying to do it i have to build a pre-amp (in this case a stompbox) and then the actual amp. Is this the same with a microphone?

  • Tom Davicory

    December 27, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    oops, typed my name wrong, that was still me :).

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