unbalanced dynamic microphones...or not?

Discuss the hardware/software tools and techniques involved in capturing sound, in the studio or on location.
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Re: unbalanced dynamic microphones...or not?

Post by hz37 »

Just don't consider the unbalanced ones. A good balanced dynamic microphone will last you a lifetime and will serve you well! I have three Shure SM58's and they sound lovely and are very robust. I have two Sennheiser e945 dynamic mics which I find a bit better on voice. Those are my number one dynamic mics, which I use for all kinds of podcast recordings for clients.

Good luck and have fun!

Hens Zimmerman

nunosga wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 11:46 am Hi,
I'm on the market for a new dynamic microphone, and I got confused over the balanced unbalanced issue.
A lot of lower cost mics , dispite having a XLR connectors, have un unbalanced output (some actually come with XLR/jack cable).
So, looking at the mic one does not know if it is balanced (supposingly balanced provide mirrored signals that cancel noise better)

I actually used my mulktimeter to test two of my microphones. One of them i know is unbalanced: Image

I got even more confused.
I need some ligh!

hz37
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Re: unbalanced dynamic microphones...or not?

Post by Wonks »

Note that mic 2 won't work at all with an XLR-XLR cable into a balanced XLR input. As a minimum you'd need to connect pin 3 to pin 1, but it's much better to rewire it for balanced operation. But with a 2.5k output impedance, it's would be best to stick to keeping it as an unbalanced mic using a TS jack to connect it to a high impedance mic input (often found on Karaoke machines).
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Wonks
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