Radio Shack Electret Condenser 33-1065

[pinkieandtherev]

I've been seeing a lot of these old RS stereo mics pop up recently. One that intrigues me is the 33-1065, which has adjustable elements for setting up stereo separation. I read elsewhere about higher voltage batteries that fit where the AA would go (6 and 12V)...will the higher voltage harm the microphone? How do these SOUND? (I'm considering two major uses. First, concert and seminar recording with...well, with whatever I pair it with. I have a good field cassette recorder and an el-cheapo digital recorder, and a Sony MD.) The second use I'm considering this for is as my drum overhead...low clutter, because it will sit on a single pole.

Any thoughts, comments, ideas, suggestions, or tomatoes? I know I've run this drum miking thing into the ground, but as I told my dad earlier, if this music is worth recording, it's worth recording it the best that we can with what we have.

josh

 

[dgatwood]

Don't know about that one in particular. I have a 33-919A, and it has pretty substantial self noise, IMHO.

 

[Shadow_7]

33-3014 here and it's got a lot of self noise. Plus it's not that transparent of a sound anyway. I doubt the higher voltage would kill them right away. But I don't know if you'd really gain anything with it either. A lot of the electret type mics I have seem to run the same on 1.5V to 9V.

 

[WillieLee]

The frequency response on the 33-3014 isn't bad, but it is noisy. Mostly because it has two unbalanced, unshielded leads that terminate as two mini-plugs. If Radio Shack would have sold something like this with XLR connections, I'm sure it would sound a LOT better.

 

[dgatwood]

The frequency response on the 33-3014 isn't bad, but it is noisy. Mostly because it has two unbalanced, unshielded leads that terminate as two mini-plugs. If Radio Shack would have sold something like this with XLR connections, I'm sure it would sound a LOT better.

Doubtful. Cables are somewhat important for dynamic mics because of their relatively low output level, but even with dynamic mics, the cable usually doesn't make much difference until your cable run is measured in tens of feet. By contrast, condenser mics have relatively hot output because they have active amplifier circuits inside the mic (which is why they require power). When a condenser mic is noisy, it is caused by using a noisy amplifier circuit. The noise that a microphone's own circuitry and other parts produce is called the microphone's "self noise", and it won't go away no matter what cable you put on the thing.

Electret condensers are particularly problematic because the amplifier (FET) is typically part of the capsule itself. In theory, this should make it very quiet (because the amplification is as close to the signal source as possible), but in practice, most electret capsules historically sucked in terms of self noise because the FETs were noisy. In the past few years, they've started making electret capsules with self noise figures that are actually pretty decent (e.g. the AT2020, the capsules that Naiant uses, etc.), but you're talking about microphones built in an era when noise levels that we would now consider utterly unacceptable were commonplace, and where tape hiss was often the biggest limiting factor. Such mics are almost guaranteed to be just plain noisy.

 

[WillieLee]

Doubtful. Cables are somewhat important for dynamic mics because of their relatively low output level, but even with dynamic mics, the cable usually doesn't make much difference until your cable run is measured in tens of feet. By contrast, condenser mics have relatively hot output because they have active amplifier circuits inside the mic (which is why they require power). When a condenser mic is noisy, it is caused by using a noisy amplifier circuit. The noise that a microphone's own circuitry and other parts produce is called the microphone's "self noise", and it won't go away no matter what cable you put on the thing.

Electret condensers are particularly problematic because the amplifier (FET) is typically part of the capsule itself. In theory, this should make it very quiet (because the amplification is as close to the signal source as possible), but in practice, most electret capsules historically sucked in terms of self noise because the FETs were noisy. In the past few years, they've started making electret capsules with self noise figures that are actually pretty decent (e.g. the AT2020, the capsules that Naiant uses, etc.), but you're talking about microphones built in an era when noise levels that we would now consider utterly unacceptable were commonplace, and where tape hiss was often the biggest limiting factor. Such mics are almost guaranteed to be just plain noisy.

Thanks for the info about the weak FET in this mic.

The Realistic 33-1065 holds a special place in my heart. It was was my 2nd mic, purchased when I was a cash strapped teenager. I recorded MANY of my own jam sessions, and jam sessions of friends using this stereo mic. My Teac V-285CHX cassette deck lacked mic preamps, so I ran the Realistic 33-1065 into a hand-me-down Teac A-650, then did a line level out to my newer Dolby C deck.

When recording to cassette, and using short cable runs, this microphone did a good job for a cheap price... Much better than my previously purchased Realistic dynamic mic, or a borrowed Sony dynamic mic. However, as my needs increased, this mic showed it's limitations. Once I acquired a 4 track, and tried to use this stereo mic as drum overheads on a longer run with cable extensions, I started getting noticeable hum, and the dbx noise reduction on my Tascam 424 revealed hiss that I never noticed when recording on the old tape deck setup.

For my first "good" mics, I purchased a pair of Shure SM-57s, using them alongside the Audio-Technica that came with the 4-track. The Realistic stereo mic has been in retirement ever since. I've purchased condenser mics since then, but they are all the type that use phantom power. I have not tried a battery operated mic since the Realistic.