Opinions and applications for the Electro Voice 664 ?

teainthesahara

teainthesahara

New member
I did a search and found that a few people have this vintage mic.
I was wondering if there are any specific applications this mic is good for.... that you would choose it over any popular, inexpensive dynamic (e.g. sm57).

thanks,
T
 
oh yeah, and...

...this mic also has a 4 pin 'adjustable' connector im told.
How does one 'adjust' the connector to work with the standard
XLR input? Is this a matter of actually re-wiring the connector, or something else? Im probably going to be recording with one of these soon, and im really clueless about working with these mics!!!

T
 
Hello

Well sorry to say this but I have two of the ev 664's and I can't think of a single application where I would choose them for over a sm-57, except the obvious exception of hitting some one over the head with the intent to kill. :D

You might have some luck if with them if you wanted to try for a retro vocal sound. as far as every day use they just don't cut it for me.


I don't know about adapting the mic to an xlr cable. I had an original cable my self. I am sure it could be done but to me you could spend your time and money better (like on a sm-57). I don't know what anybody meant by "adjustable connector"??? I am sure that the right person could rewire one for xlr if they where determined.

trust me, I wish they where awsome!!! but at least they look cool!


Later

F.S.
 
Oh ya! if you do decide to use this, make sure you remove the thumb screw from the middle of the grill, take off the grill and remove any original foam matirial that might be in there. At this point it would have degraded to a light chunk of dust that will hender the performance of the mic. I just left it out. If you wanted you could cut up a new foamy/wind screen and replace it.



F.S.
 
Hey F.S.,
that's some great info - much appreciated. So i take it this
could be a 'special effect' mic of sorts....
I havent actually seen the mic yet; does the original cable hook up to a standard XLR input on a mixer ?

Thanks again,
T
 
teainthesahara said:
Hey F.S.,
that's some great info - much appreciated. So i take it this
could be a 'special effect' mic of sorts....
I havent actually seen the mic yet; does the original cable hook up to a standard XLR input on a mixer ?

Thanks again,
T
Click to expand...

Ya I'd say you might get some use out of it for a special effects mic. Hell I don't know it might be great on harmonica????? One thing's for sure it's alot better than no mic, but for mic'ing a guitar cabnit or vocals or a drum (besides Kick) I'd go with a 57 or another like quality mic.

As you haven't seen the mic. It is a beautifull mic (if in good shape). I have seen them used as prop mics in a few music videos. If I had my camera at home I'd shoot you a picture.

The original cable went from the mic to a 1/4 inch plug (like a guitar jack) Of course the calbe had a male 1/4 inch plug on the end not a jack.


Well I have to run. Good luck.

F.S.
 
I was recording an oud overdub, and not getting it...Tried everything,
and I mean everything...U87's, 414's, KM84's. It's a hard instrument to
capture, kinda like a string version of a djembe, with tons of highs,
mids and lows all needing to be there. Finally put up a single EV 664
just for grins, and there it was...insta-oud. There was no contest to
either the player or myself--the 664 was THE mic. At the end of the
session, I handed him the mic and said "you'll be needing this"--he
thought I was giving away the farm, but hell, they're all over ebay for
what, 50 bucks? I think it's a sleeper, personally.
Anything's possible...
 
Ya know, all this talk made me pull one of mine out and plug it in again.

It is really not all that bad. You could get some stuff done with it. It's has very high handling noise so I would be carefull of vibrations from the mic stand etc.


It's has it's own tone going on so you will need to be able to eq things.

Here is a picture of the mic and the cable ends.


Later

F.S.
 

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ok, that's cool

F.S., thank's for postin that pic - i totally get the 4 pin connector thing now. Your right, IS a beautiful mic! One of the instruments i was thinking of trying this mic on was actually few hand-percussion instruments - including a dejembe drum....Tonewood, your positive experience with this mic and that type of source has me encouraged!!!! Can't wait to try this out!

T
 
After looking at the picture I think what they meant by "adjustable" is that those connectors had a 2-way key, so that the connector could be plugged in one of two possible ways. The mic elements were usually wired so that plugging the 4-pin into the mic one way gave you high impedance, while reversing the plug at the mic would give you a low impedance.

This allows you to plug the mic into a high impedance guitar amp, or switch the plug and use it into a board.

The downside is that either way it's still a 1/4" phone UNBALANCED connection at the other end... Steve
 
knightfly said:
After looking at the picture I think what they meant by "adjustable" is that those connectors had a 2-way key, so that the connector could be plugged in one of two possible ways. The mic elements were usually wired so that plugging the 4-pin into the mic one way gave you high impedance, while reversing the plug at the mic would give you a low impedance.

This allows you to plug the mic into a high impedance guitar amp, or switch the plug and use it into a board.

The downside is that either way it's still a 1/4" phone UNBALANCED connection at the other end... Steve
Click to expand...


that's hard to picture Knightfly: The plug is indexed for only one direction. You can only insert it one way into the mic. I do however have a cord that goes to 1/4 inch mono and one that goes to 1/4 inch balanced/stereo. The cord that goes to a balanced/stereo 1/4 inch has a shure brothers transformer near the 1/4 inch end. the transformer is about the size of a hand grenade.

Later
F.S.
 
it's a cool mic!

FYI everybody:
I just used the EV 664 to record some vocals and dejembe drum....this one in particular had an balanced cable (i think) with a XLR connector (so i guess they do exist in this configuration). It's not quite the jack-of-all-trade dynamic mic like the sm57, but it has it's own, unique sound. In particular, i found it to be really good at the bottom end of the dejembe - it captured the right amount of "boom!" and high end 'snap' from that end of the instrument. Mixed in with a condensor capturing the top end of the drum....and i was impressed! Thanks everybody for the help with this one....

T
 
That's great!!! Yes it's own sound for sure. I noticed a lot of low end too.

I wonder how it would hold up to kick??


Later

F.S.
 
EV 664

This mic came out in several versions and finishes.
The guts were all the same except for the transformers.
There were the chrome ones, gold finished ones (popular in churches) and the tv grey models.
Some came with the four pin Amphenol connectors.
You could wire those for high or low impedance by selecting different pins. Those were mainly PA and communications mics.
Others came with regular 3 pin cannon connectors and many showed up in radio and tv before the 666 came out.
They sound ok but not great
 
Hey,guys. You should always first find out a mics frequency response.the 664`s is 60hz to 13khz,which was designed for
 
PRO5A said:
Hey,guys. You should always first find out a mics frequency response.the 664`s is 60hz to 13khz,which was designed for
Click to expand...

I am sure that the guys from 12 years ago have figured it out by now. Read the last post date before answering old threads.

holy thread resurrection.jpg
 
more info

witzendoz said:
I am sure that the guys from 12 years ago have figured it out by now. Read the last post date before answering old threads.

View attachment 92654
Click to expand...

Just acquired a EV664 and it came to me with an original 4-pin EV quick-changeover connector - which is constructed differently from the Amphenol version many people know about. The EV connector allows for quick disassembly by the user without tools or soldering. While disassembled, you can change the mic's output impedance by physically relocating the pin on the white wire (of the mic cord) from the pin 2 position to the pin 3 position (or vice versa) inside the cable connector body. The connector is designed for the pins to easily slip in-out of the plastic keyed insert, and are firmly locked in place once the connector is reassembled. Full instructions on how to accomplish this are included in the EV664 manual or instruction sheet that is freely available from several sources on the web.
 
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