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What is a Battery Box

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monradon

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Is a battery box , power for powered mics ??? If so do you have to worry about overloading the mic. input ??? I am looking for a new mic for my sharp mdmt 15 and was looking at a audio technica pro 24 battery powered stereo mic. is this too much for my sharp or is there something better ???? I am not looking to record stealth just at jams and outdoors often .

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Is a battery box , power for powered mics ??? If so do you have to worry about overloading the mic. input ??? I am looking for a new mic for my sharp mdmt 15 and was looking at a audio technica pro 24 battery powered stereo mic. is this too much for my sharp or is there something better ???? I am not looking to record stealth just at jams and outdoors often .

A battery box is a box, usually plastic, with a simple circuit and a battery. Its purpose is to supply bias current to electret condensor mics. The voltage supplied by the mic-in of most MD's is not that high. With the voltage supplied by the battery box you can record at higher volumes (SPL's) without having the mics distort. It is not a 100% guarantee against distortion, but it helps a lot.

This board has an excellent post by Greenmachine on how to build this box. You can also buy one for ~US$50. The AT Pro 24 is just the type of mic which would profit from a BB. You may be better off spending about twice that at Sound Professionals and getting the AT-U853's with the 4.7Kohm mod. Their model number at SP is SP-CMC-4U. Microphone Madness also make a nice pair of Sennheiser's, MM-HLSC-1, which is a bit more. If you do any more recording than just a few sets you may as well bite the bullet and get a set of good, mid-priced amateur grade mics.

Cheers B)

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Back to your original question.

When you plug a mic into mic-in it sends 1.5 volts of "plug-in power" to the mic, which needs a little bit of power to run. When you use a battery box, it sends whatever its voltage is--usually 9V--which opens up the mic's dynamic range and lets it handle louder sounds. The power goes to the mic, not to the mic input.

A mic turns sound into an electronic signal, so the louder the sound, the stronger the signal. When you use mic-->battery box-->line-in, you're getting power from the battery box to run the mic and a strong signal (loud sound) to register on the MD.

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