fiona

this is a good point e1ghtyf1ve, it's sometimes not wise to put too much stock in "repair" people

chooby, this is just the scenario I seem to have. i bought a sony mic ECM-DS30P and when plugged straight in it seems a lot better. not perfect i must say, but much better. it's not much use like this though is it? (given the machine noise it picks up). and once i add the extension lead, it's heaps worse. i am going to try to find a better quality lead as this is just a generic $5 one. this may have caused the trouble in the first place : today i was looking at the first plug i used (again, very cheap) and it's a monster. compared to the nice gold plated sony mic plug, it's bigger, rough and not even really the same shape. i think it' wise to avoid this stuff.

...thanks for your input, think i will take it in to a shop to try the jack cleaning option first...

hi, I am new to this, i have recently bought a sony MZ NHF 800 at a fair bargain price (given discontinuing) just for fun home recordings. since i bought it though there has been a crackle in the mic connection (1/8" jacK). i started out unawares using a mono mic with extension and mono plug and have since learned this is probably a bad idea. am now onto decent sony stereo mic and plug. it records fine and in stereo except there is a nasty crackle if you touch the lead (to the mic plug in power) even slightly. am wondering if I have damaged the jack as i have read that using a mono plug in a stereo jack can short it out. can anyone shed light? did i cause the crackle with the mono plug or is it something else? thanks if you can help