Boosting output of vintage mic

[mcolling]

Howdy,

I just purchased a cheapo mic off of EBay for 1 Pound. It is the Sony F99. I tested it out this morning and the ouput is extremely weak (although I do like what output there is). None of my preamps has enough gain.

The question is: Can I boost this mic's output, and, if so, how?

[acorec]

Originally Posted by mcolling

Howdy,

I just purchased a cheapo mic off of EBay for 1 Pound. It is the Sony F99. I tested it out this morning and the ouput is extremely weak (although I do like what output there is). None of my preamps has enough gain.

The question is: Can I boost this mic's output, and, if so, how?

Why not daisy chain pre-amps? If 1 is good, 2 are better.

[ubertar]

It sounds like an impedance mismatch. A lot of cheapo mics are high Z, and your preamp is most likely looking for low Z. Try running through a step-down transformer before you hit the pre.

[mcolling]

Ah yes, it is a high Z mic if I remember correctly. I will look into that, and "daisy chain" otherwise".

Thanks for the suggestions!