Use headphone amplifier with microphone

M

mikelike

New member
Hi,

Just a quick dumb question for you folks. I have an atr 3350 lavalier microphone that works like garbage with my laptop because the lavalier is very quiet and the laptop has a very noisy soundcard; even when using an external sound card.

A place nearby has fiio e6 headphone amplifiers, and a friend said he uses one to amplify the sound for his camera, so would this work the same with my laptop and the atr. Searching online there seems to be some level of discussion of people using this method with their cameras and I was curious if it would work.

Any thoughts? I wouldn't even be considering it but I live in the middle of nowhere and it takes weeks to order anything and the nearest town is several hours away.
 
Your 1000 ohm mike should work well with a normal PC sound card (usually designed for 600-1000 ohm load, but not necessarily).
Have you tried the microphone in other devices? (see if the mike is damaged)
Have you tried even a junk microphone in the mike in on your laptop? (see if the record in is faulty)
By external soundcard, do you mean an audio interface?
Sorry I have more questions than answers, but your amplifier will give about a 4.5v signal (max) and your PC's mike in should only be able to handle around 100mv. not sure that's a good solution.
 
As Ken says, we need more information.
That headphone amp has an impressive noise spec of better than -100dB but only has a gain of 6.5dB so that is not going to lift the mic level very much.

In any event, the mic seems to have a very respectable sensitivity of around 6mV/Pa (if I have the right model) which is some 14dB better than an SM57 so any 1/2 decent interface should be fine.


Dave.
 
Thanks for the quick replies!

BroKen_H said:
Your 1000 ohm mike should work well with a normal PC sound card (usually designed for 600-1000 ohm load, but not necessarily).
Have you tried the microphone in other devices? (see if the mike is damaged)
Have you tried even a junk microphone in the mike in on your laptop? (see if the record in is faulty)
By external soundcard, do you mean an audio interface?
Sorry I have more questions than answers, but your amplifier will give about a 4.5v signal (max) and your PC's mike in should only be able to handle around 100mv. not sure that's a good solution.
Click to expand...

The 3350 has a battery so I'm thinking maybe that might be a cause of my woes with the microphone, and from reading around the web, maybe a few others as well. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get a replacement battery for some time.

I've tried the microphone with another laptop with the same result.

By external soundcard I mean a Xonar U3. I wish I had an audio interface.

I've since found another cheapie headset, aside from the one I was already testing, and it sounds absolutely wonderful- albeit to my tin ear- compared to the atr 3350 and when plugged into the Xonar U3 has almost no noise hiss. I was using another headset and I'm starting to think it too is broken since it sounds like garbage; lots of noise/hiss and distortion.

ecc83 said:
As Ken says, we need more information.
That headphone amp has an impressive noise spec of better than -100dB but only has a gain of 6.5dB so that is not going to lift the mic level very much.

In any event, the mic seems to have a very respectable sensitivity of around 6mV/Pa (if I have the right model) which is some 14dB better than an SM57 so any 1/2 decent interface should be fine.


Dave.
Click to expand...

I'm very new to this so much of it is hard for me to process. The problem I'm having with the 3350 is that I need to use it at full input on PC (sorry for terminology like I say I'm new to this) which is also amplifying the noise/hiss. When I use a program like Audacity to remove the noise, it just sounds distorted and muted.
 
Your terminology is pretty good. Your understanding as well. So, problem solved? You get a new battery for the 3350 and use the cheapie in the mean time?
 
Okay, if you want to remove hiss: Hiss is usually white noise in a high end spectrum. Pop a parametric eq onto the channel and set the level fairly high on the high mid. Now tighten the Q as tight as it will go. You want the curve to look like a spike and not a hump. Now play with the frequency up and down until you make the hiss as loud and clear as you can get it. Turn the level knob down until the hiss is at a minimum without ruining the recording.

Or just re-record with the new mike. :D
 
Yeah, I just use the cheapie instead of fooling around with recording too much. Hopefully the battery solves the problem but until then I at least have a mic that works.

Edit:
I've been playing around with the atr 3350 a little more and all of a sudden it started sounding better...I'm at a loss for why. Initially it sounded god awful in my microphone jack and slightly better in the xonar but now it sounds much better in the Xonar. The mic is still low and there is a hiss proportional to the input level but if it were louder it'd be useful. The cheapie also has that hiss but is much louder so I can keep the input low enough that it goes unheard.

Cheapie mic still sounds better though.
 
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