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Countryman B3 noise (vs other lavs)


Philip Perkins

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It's been some time since I used B3s--I used to have a few and liked them fine.  I just bought a new one for a particular project, and it seems to have very noticeably higher BG noise than the other lavs here (B6, COS11, Sonotrim, my DPA headset and instrument mics, Isomax IIs).  This  B3 is the "W4" or "normal sensitivity" version.  It appears to be wired correctly for Lectro TX.  Have I just forgotten how noisy these are, is this mic maybe wired wrong for the TX or do I have a slightly defective mic?  thanks

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12 minutes ago, Kvark said:

They are less sensitive than DPA and Sanken. That can be an advantage in some cases, but you're probably gaining that self-noise up.

That doesn't seem to be the case--with the mixer gain set the same with the same TX/RX and resulting output levels the sensitivity seems the same, it's just the mic that appears to have more self noise that I recalled.  Will ask Countryman tmw...

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Might be worth a call to Lectro to see what their current wiring recommendations are.  I found this note in my files (I know this is a different mic, but the principle of different opinions on wiring is a valid possibility):

 

Sept 16, 2011

Talked with Rene (ext 171) at Lectrosonics because Countryman E6 mics were noisy on new UM400a transmitters.  He said that the documents on the web showed the wiring recommended by Countryman, but that there in the Lectrosonics shop they prefer a different wiring:

TA5F    Wire
Pin 1    Shield
Pin 2    Jump to 4
Pin 3    White (or green, as in the 10/2016 mics)
Pin 4    Jump to 2
Pin 5    Not connected

This wiring has been tested and seems to work nicely on the following transmitters:
M185 
UM200c
SMa
UM400a (sound much improved over factory wiring)

[And today I can also add LMb to that list]

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