Stereo Realistic Condenser with 1/4" Jacks

Bodhisan

Hillbilly
Dual Pattern Stereo Electret Microphone System 33-919. Found it at a thrift store in good shape. If this is, indeed, a condenser (which is the claim on the box), it needs phantom power, and my preamp only takes XLR connectors for a condensor mike. My thoughts are to sell this, but would like to make sure it works before I put it up. I guess the only way to check it is to convert the 1/4" jacks to XLR, which I've never done before (never had a condenser that had a 1/4" jack). Is that correct?
 
Guess again, Bodhisan. It is an electret condenser. It doesn't require phantom power. Unscrew it and put in a AA battery. It has 600 ohm output impedence (that's low impedence), and was designed to be plugged into an old time stereo open reel recorder. It'll work with a DAT, minidisc, small digital recorder (such as PXR4), or direct-to-CDR recorder with the right adaptors. You can also use adaptors to get it to 2 (unbalanced) XLR's, and it will work with whatever preamp you have. It's worth about $40, and I expect it doesn't sound like a Neumann. You never know, though. Sometimes mics like that can be pretty good one-point drum overheads.- Richie
 
Uh...that's hilarious. Walked over to it sitting on the dryer, unscrewed it, saw there was a battery compartment, and...I'll give her a try. $40 would be a good profit, and I just bought a lefty '86 Japanese Fender Tele and need to convince my wife there are things I'm selling to help pay for it. Thanks for the education, Richie. I will test it, though, and hope I don't like it. Last thing I need is another mike.
 
man that mic is SOOOO fabulous... we used to call it "the majic" mic, cause for recording practices it'd get great mix ANYWHERE in the room... it's worth $2k

really
 
I have one of those mics. It sucks. Output is way low, so you've got to run the gain super hot with all of the noise of that process. In it's favor, the noise is such that even audacity's old noise removal method could remove it. But it still doesn't compare well against your more standard mics.

Edit:
On my Korg MR-1000 I've got to flip the switch on gain from L to H. And still turn it's knob to at least noon. And still add digital gain in post. And that's with one of those fancy energizer e8 AA's stuck in it. On my Mobile Pre I think the gain knobs were maxed or within 3 dots (of 27) from maxed.
 
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