Phantom Supply

[sr1200]

Sorry didn't quite know where to post this one. If it needs to be moved please let me know where to stick it, but be gentile lol.

I have a pair of radial mic splitters with a thru. The manual states that you can pass phantom power from the through to the mic. The iso output has the signal pass through a transformer which would effectively stop the phantom from heading through, however, this would also load the mic differently than the preamp on the other side of the through. First question is "does this matter"? Since theres going to be load from the pre as well as the iso transformer, does this effectively not make a difference on the other end of the iso? Im trying to do some mic pre comparisons and trying to find the best way to go about it with a condenser mic. Second question is: "how will this effect a dynamic mic?" Im going to find out eventually just from doing the tests, but if someone has a better way of going about this that makes more sense, im all for it. For a bunch of my tests, its going to be a mic infront of a cab that im running reamped signal through, so i dont need the splitter for those and hopefully that will reveal differences from loads between the pres. However for live performances like drums or brass/winds instruments, the tests get a little more skewed. Having the same perforamce to compare to is great for AB(C) but if the loads are off, or not high enough, it can change the sound a bit. If anyones got any feedback or thoughts would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[ccaudle]

What are you connecting to each port? A transformer with nothing connected does not add much load, the load on the secondary of the transformer is transferred to the primary (possibly with a changed impedance, depending on whether the windings ratio is 1:1 or not).
The load on the microphone is the parallel combination of what is connected to each port, so if you can describe specifically what is connected to each port of the splitter that can be calculated.

Phantom power does not affect a dynamic mic, but dynamic mics can have larger response differences to differing load than condenser microphones, since the active buffer in the condenser mics should have low output impedance that hopefully does not change much with frequency (the coupling caps will increase impedance at low frequencies, so lower loads can decrease the low frequency response of condenser mics).