Sm57

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lukicore

Member
Hello all you good people
I just got my first sm57 did not try it yet :-( Tomorrow :-) The mic is not coming with the cable so i will have to buy XLR cable but i allready have one XLR but it ends with 1/4 mono jack And MY question is ...
Is that gonna change the performence of the mic ???

my interface is Firebox

Thanx for the answers

Lukasz
 
It certainly will change the performance of the mic since the TS jack inputs on the Firebox are designed for high impedance instruments, not microphones. The result will be low levels and a skewed frequency response caused by the impedance mismatch.

Treat yourself to an XLR-XLR cable!
 
Bobbsy said:
It certainly will change the performance of the mic since the TS jack inputs on the Firebox are designed for high impedance instruments, not microphones. The result will be low levels and a skewed frequency response caused by the impedance mismatch.

Treat yourself to an XLR-XLR cable!
Click to expand...

What about the combo jacks ?
 
The TS sockets on the combo jacks are designed for instruments. They're 1 megaohm impedance (as opposed to 1.3kOhm on the XLR) and the gain is +8 to +50dB as opposed to +14 to +55dB on the XLR microphone input.

Edited to Add: See pages 16 and 17 in the manual HERE.

Bob
 
It's not so much the cable that makes the difference as what it's attached to.

The quarter inch jack inputs on your Firebox are designed for you to plug in an instrument like an electric guitar or perhaps a keyboard output. The output of electric guitars is louder than a microphone and has a much higher impedance than your SM57. This means that, if you plug in your microphone where an instrument is designed to go, the mic will be quieter than it's supposed to be and, because of the impedance issue, the frequency response will be slightly different than the manufacturer planned.

There's one other difference too. Using an XLR to XLR will give you a "balanced" input to your Firebox which is very effective at reducing electrical interference on your cable. Using the TS (what you called "mono") connector gives you an unbalanced circuit which is more susceptible to electrical interference. Over a short run this probably won't be too much of an issue but it could be significant if you have a sparking thermostat or something in your house. And, because you'll have to crank up the input gain when you plug a mic into an instrument input, any noise will be amplified at that stage.

So, although the cable itself doesn't make too much difference, using the wrong input connector can.

Bob
 
Bobbsy said:
It's not so much the cable that makes the difference as what it's attached to.

The quarter inch jack inputs on your Firebox are designed for you to plug in an instrument like an electric guitar or perhaps a keyboard output. The output of electric guitars is louder than a microphone and has a much higher impedance than your SM57. This means that, if you plug in your microphone where an instrument is designed to go, the mic will be quieter than it's supposed to be and, because of the impedance issue, the frequency response will be slightly different than the manufacturer planned.

There's one other difference too. Using an XLR to XLR will give you a "balanced" input to your Firebox which is very effective at reducing electrical interference on your cable. Using the TS (what you called "mono") connector gives you an unbalanced circuit which is more susceptible to electrical interference. Over a short run this probably won't be too much of an issue but it could be significant if you have a sparking thermostat or something in your house. And, because you'll have to crank up the input gain when you plug a mic into an instrument input, any noise will be amplified at that stage.

So, although the cable itself doesn't make too much difference, using the wrong input connector can.

Bob
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
Thanx Bobbsy :-)
People this is the reason i love this forum Simple answer and nice explanation Thanx a lot and i wish you very nice Sunday :-)
 
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