We've Got A New "King Of The Low End" LDC...

[buzzard bass]

I ordered a 2003A, should be here Tuesday, Amazon owe me an endorsement man. I passed on the recording pack since it just stated one of mics was a 2003, seems like the 2003A is the one people are raving about. Figured they must be different since the 2003A is the same price as the recording pack which has 2 mics and the 2003A is always sold out.

 

[MichaelJoly]

I'm suprised that not many folks here took the time to check out the shootout and post their thoughts.This thread had seen a lot of activity early on and many opinions were expressed...

This is typical gear forum behavior - lots of opinions about mics (including dissing a mic based on its current consumption before even hearing it!) before sound samples are presented, then near-silence once the samples appear.

 

[mshilarious]

This is typical gear forum behavior - lots of opinions about mics (including dissing a mic based on its current consumption before even hearing it!) before sound samples are presented, then near-silence once the samples appear.

Incorrect Mr. Joly, you will see I picked #6! Still uses too much current though.

Also, I'm not a mod anymore, so feel free to spam your arse off! Seriously, go for it, I won't even complain!

Edit: TPS54060, check it out, brand new and sexy. I am definitely using that part in a future microphone.

 

[moresound]

Well maybe #1 was my choice cause it was the first one I heard (next time I will listen in reverse order) But #6 was my close runner up in second place.

 

[moresound]

Incorrect Mr. Joly, you will see I picked #6! Still uses too much current though.

Also, I'm not a mod anymore, so feel free to spam your arse off! Seriously, go for it, I won't even complain!

Edit: TPS54060, check it out, brand new and sexy. I am definitely using that part in a future microphone.

New dc/dc converter looks to be nice. What are they using in their MXL 2003a?

 

[mshilarious]

Dunno, nobody traced the circuit and posted it. But this goes the other way from most microphones, usually you will see a step-up circuit that is your basic oscillator followed by a multi-stage voltage multiplier to provide the capsule polarization voltage. That works well since the current required is essentially zero so efficiency is not terribly important.

A step-down converter looks at the problem from the other side and allows a mic's amplifier to operate as a constant-power design that is insensitive to supply voltage. In other words, if you decide that your microphone must be capable of say +10dBV into 600 ohm, then you can define your power requirement as 15mW, or let's say 30mW to allow for some other circuit elements as well as the losses to the converter. With P48, that is 0.6mA; with P12 it's 2.5mA. Such light loads minimize losses in the phantom supply resistors to 1.2mW and 2.1mW, respectively, such that those losses are less than 10%. The losses will be even smaller into a more typical 1-2K ohm load.

Compare that to a basic design where much of the power consumed does nothing else than heat the phantom supply resistors a bit--the 2003A loses over 40% of power consumed to the supply resistors.