phantom power or battery ?
Interesting question and this may seem a strange answer, but
it may be of interest although its a bit academic.
Basically your mike needs a DC voltage to work, plus it needs
sufficient current to adequately reproduce the sounds it is
receiving. Sometimes it will need little current for low intensity sounds and then in a split second it may have to respond
immediatly to high intensity sound which requires more work from the power supply. If the power supply is unable to give this voltage and current immediately then forgetting the quality of the mike it will not be able to produce the results it could be capable of.
So we get down to whether phantom or battery is best ?
This will come as a suprise but some of the best manufacturers
have been known to cut corners ie. reduce expense when
possible. Is this a suprise ?.
Assuming both the battery and the phantom supply are able to
supply adequate voltage and current without running out of steam [voltage drop or unable to supply enough current when needed] then I would probably prefer the supply which had the least RF [radio frequency] interference on it.
RF interference is not something you can hear, its not a radio
playing in the background. Its parasitic electrical interference that has a nasty way of getting into electronic circuits and it can be VERY difficult to prevent.
Many years of experience with upmarket Hi-Fi has convinced me absolutely that eliminating RF on power supplies gives HUGE
benefits. The sound is clearer, more open, more natural, not hidden in the speakers and squeazed out. Not HARSH. Not NASTY
in other words its what you dreamt of but never got.This assumes that your equipment was decent in the first place.
In general batteries do not have a RF content though they are not perfect supplies of DC. Some upmarket HI-FI run off batteries and sound great. The problem is does your mike have some sort of voltage doubler/ multiplier to get to 48v and does this itself introduce nasties into the mikes sound ?
If you opt for the 48v phantom from your mixer or whatever then going back to my previous comments it depends how good the supply is [cost, cutting corners etc]. Getting rid of RF is VERY difficult and expensive.
Finding out which is best from a technical point of view would be
very difficult and not worth even thinking about.
The answer is to forget it all and trust your ears. Whatever sounds best to YOU is what counts, nothing else.
I live in the UK, and recently listened to a HI-FI system costing
£55,000. IT WAS CRAP. I have also listened to systems costing as little as £1000 and thought them very good. Money is not everything !
So have a comparison listen test with phantom and battery supply and see if you can hear any difference. Use the one you prefer.
Not a simple answer was it ?. But good luck and I hope it answers your question.
