Ever Seen These Old Sony Mics??? With Pictures!

[test212test]

I picked up a pair of Sony Ecm-270 electret condenser mics from a yard sale for 5 bucks. The lady said she thinks they are about 20 years old. I did a search on the web and the only thing that I could find was that Grateful Dead tapers seem to like these mics.

I am new to recording, want to record acoustic solo guitar and maybe some vocals over it. I have been looking for a while to purchase a pci box like the M-Audio Omni Studio with preamps and phantom power. I could really use some help with these questions:

1. Are these mics crappy? I was going to buy a pair of inexpensive pencil condensor mics to start with, but maybe I can use these to get rolling?

2. The 15ft cables look very thin and old and probably twice as long as I need. I assume these old cables will sound pretty bad? Do these connections look standard? Is there a specific XLR cable I would need?

3. They take a AA battery each, but plugged directly into my sound card, there is very little output. In an attempt to test if they work, I ran then through a little guitar amp modeler that I have, I put it on a amp simulation and crank the levels, actually does not sound too bad. So I believe the mics work. If I get a phantom power unit, do I leave the batteries in the mic, take them out, or need a dummy battery or something?

Thanks VERY much!
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[xfinsterx]

Man those look great!
I love old mics...

 

[ssscientist]

What you've got there look like good quality tape recorder mics - Sony made a whole bunch of reel-to-reel recorders and also made a bunch of mics to go with them...

The only way you're going to find out if they're right for your use is to try them.

As far as the question about phantom power, it won't hurt the mics to leave the batteries in --- to put it in simple terms, they won't take more power than they need.

 

[acorec]

What you've got there look like good quality tape recorder mics - Sony made a whole bunch of reel-to-reel recorders and also made a bunch of mics to go with them...

The only way you're going to find out if they're right for your use is to try them.

As far as the question about phantom power, it won't hurt the mics to leave the batteries in --- to put it in simple terms, they won't take more power than they need.

Unless the batteries blow up from being exposed to +48v. Take the batteries OUT if using phantom power!

 

[ssscientist]

Unless the batteries blow up from being exposed to +48v. Take the batteries OUT if using phantom power!

Yeah! What he said! Boy, do I ever have egg on MY face!

The only batteries that have an explosion risk are old mercury-type batteries and unless some miracle has happened those would be long dead...

I stand by my post.

 

[Harvey Gerst]

The ECM270 are the Sony condenser mics that were available for home recorders. They're electret mics and don't use (or want to see) phantom power. They do have a balanced output and can be converted to XLR's. The simplest conversion is to remove the 1.5 volt battery and replace it with a similar sized 9 to 12 volt battery.

Sony electret material from that period was pretty unstable and has probably lost a lot of its initial charge.

 

[test212test]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies...even if they conflict a bit. I did a search on yahoo for "sony ecm phantom" and it seems like most of the ecm line can be phantom powered? What would be a good application for these mics, just sort of an ambient room recording? Maybe it's not even worth it to try to make the thing work for an acoustic guitar and vocals? If I get an omni studio regardless, would just a standard xlr cable power the mic?