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mono plug in stereo jack

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fiona

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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

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The jack should be compatible with mono microphones with no troubles.

Are you using the unit to record from a mic source with the AC adapter plugged in? This can cause different interfence problems including hum and crackling, and varying noise when you touch metal parts of the unit [like screws exposed on the outside].

If you're getting this while using battery power, then perhaps either the jack or the plug on the mic cable is dirty. An easy way to test if this is the issue is to turn the plug gently in the jack with the unit in record-pause and your headphones plugged in to monitor; if it's really dirty, you'll get the sound cutting in and out and lots of crackling.

Cleaning the jack inside the unit can be difficult and it's relatively easy to damage it if you try. If it's dirty or if the jack is suspect, I would suggest having the unit serviced by Sony, hopefully under warranty coverage. A local shop could also likely help with cleaning the jack alone for a minimum bench fee or even less, since it would take less than a minute to do.

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Carefully wiping 1/4" and 1/8" plugs with a clean cloth before gentle insertion (headphone, line, and mic) keeps the jacks clean and is a good habit to get into. Try doing this several times (wipe, insert, wipe, insert...) for that mic jack and you might be lucky and not need to take the little deck in to a repair shop...

Cheers

:lol:

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For what its worth, I have experienced this crackling too and I have not used a mono jack at any stage. My NH900 is brand new so I haven't had a chance to look into it properly but I'll definetly be giving this jack cleaning a try.

It didn't seem to occur when plugging the Sony mic (ECMDS70p) straight in but only when I had it connected to an extension lead.

anyhoo, good luck

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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.

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Hmm, bit of a worry actually. Even worse, my generic plug was $16 at Tandy :o (I hate having to shop there but sometimes there's no option).

Thing is, I do quite a bit of audio tech work and while I try not to use cheap leads I've never had crackles like this before. On the positive side, it may also be possible that there is a certain amount of "breaking in" that occurs on this input !?? :unsure: . I'll be put it through some testing this week and will let you know if I have any success. I'm determined to make this sucker work because I'm really digging the whole HIMD thing ;)

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