Countryman B3

[Rob Lewis]

I just picked up a couple of B3's wired for Lectro.  They sound very noisy to me compared to my Sankens, MKE-2's, EMW's and B6's.  I figured they would be close to the sound of the B6, but are not as hot and have a constant swishy sound to them, like they are accentuating the compander noise of my UM200 transmitters.  There is also a hum when touching the skin.  Anyone ever hear this before?  I'm about to send them back.

[studiomprd]

you don't say if they are wired for the Lectro's you have, which could account for the problems;  I have a number of B3's, and while they don't sound or perform the same as B6's, they do work properly, quite satisfactorily, with my Lectro's,

[Philip Perkins]

Before you send them back, why not open up the connectors and check how they are wired?  Have the Lectro manual available and see if they are wired correctly for your TX.  If they both sound weird, that could be the problem.

Philip Perkins

[Eric Toline]

I just picked up a couple of B3's wired for Lectro.  They sound very noisy to me compared to my Sankens, MKE-2's, EMW's and B6's.  I figured they would be close to the sound of the B6, but are not as hot and have a constant swishy sound to them, like they are accentuating the compander noise of my UM200 transmitters.  There is also a hum when touching the skin.  Anyone ever hear this before?  I'm about to send them back.

Here's the B3 wiring from the Lectro website:

Red to pin 3, shield & black to pin 1, jumper pin 2 to pin 4

You might try grounding the ta connector shell to pin 1 to see if that helps with the hum problem.

Eric

[MT Groove]

I just bought 3 sets of Countryman B3 and none of them have the issues described.  Mine are TA5F wired for Lectros.

[ptalsky]

If they're new and/or under warranty (even if they're not), you might want to give Countryman a call.  They have always been amazingly helpful to me (though in all fairness, they are also about 5 minutes up the road, so when I need something fixed, I just drive it over).  Rosa is the head technician there and is great, when you can get her on the phone.  :-)

Phil

[Rob Lewis]

Thanks for all the replys.  The mics were ordered from B&H and were dropped shipped from Countryman.  I have Um200c Lectros and they were wired according to the Countryman website.  They just seemed to have a swishy sound to them unlike anything I have ever heard.  I have already sent them back, to be replaced with B6's.  My first inclination was the wiring, but when I saw them wired correctly I was a bit dumbfounded at why they sounded so noisy.  I thought I would give them a try and save a few bucks over the B6's.  Its just my luck that I always seem to get the lemon in the bunch.

Rob