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T-Power to 48V adapters - Question


bmfsnd

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Hi Everyone,

I have the MKH416-T, and with a 664 on the way, there's no T-power option anymore. Either I swap to a P48 version, or get one of those adapters instead.

If I do get one of those PSC barrels, does it need to be connected at a certain point down the chain? Rather than directly on the mic, could it be plugged in closer to the mixer?

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" does it need to be connected at a certain point down the chain? "

yes, it needs to be connected somewhere between the T-powered mic (mike). and the P-48 powered mic (mike) input.

these adapters accept P-48 power on the male connector, and provide T-12 on the female side, your 416-T won't know the difference.

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In theory... since T powering disturbs the perfect balancing of the audio leads, couldn't it affect the common mode rejection on the mic cable. Yes, it's DC and wouldn't (or shouldn't) get into the audio circuits, but caps do leak, and that could bias things.

If so - and remember this is just a theory, and not at all thinking of the practical side of using a mic - then wouldn't it make a tiny difference to have the T side of the link as short as possible... that is, near the mic rather than at the mixer?

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The barrel adapters work quite well. You can put it anywhere on the chain. I have noticed and people have said that it might work better right at the mike itself.

There was one instance where, for whatever reason, I couldn't get the barrel adapter working at the usual spot at the recorder. I kept getting low output/hiss whenever I plugged the xlr in. I was able to make it work when I plugged it directly into the microphone in this case. However, I found this annoying (the Schoeps loses its discrete advantage) so after plugging it in and out a bit I finally got it to work.

Since then, I have heard that you shouldn't hot swap mikes. Though this isn't taken too seriously by most recordists, I actually never hot swap mikes nowadays and I haven't had a barrel adapter problem since. I think I actually have less of other problems as well like RF & preamp pops (though that might be coincidental).

I feel like a true T-power source kind of makes T-powered mikes sound better, but it might just be the fact that I am using a 744's awesome preamps. I feel like there is a slight quality boost or hiss reduction when using the barrel adapter right at the microphone, but maybe it's all in my head.

Also, be careful not to feed phantom mikes with T-power. I hear it's dangerous for them.

Best of luck,

Sawrab

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