SDC Review

This one got my attention:

Interesting article. I was looking at a pair from Advanced Audio, sad to see it wasn't included. I have never used Tube SDC and to keep hearing that they sounded better than the solid state versions really makes me want a pair now.

I never found a reference describing what his best solid state SDC mics he compared the tube mics too.

I only read about 80% of the article and lost interest in the generalized, non committal nature of the descriptions. The conclusion seemed inconclusive so I skipped over some of the middle.



I wonder how nice a solid state mic would sound if it had a mammoth, free standing, fully buffered, power supply instead of the typical current starved 48vdc phantom coming off a small console?


best regards,
mike

What solid state SDC have those types of power supplies?

Any one can use a free standing fully buffered hi current capacity phantom power supply to ensure that the phantom power has (almost) zero ripple, no voltage sag under draw, and is fully buffered from the neighboring solid state microphones.

That's how it was BEFORE phantom (or T) power was included on console inputs as a convenience, and the option remains available to any one who wants to make sure their mics have good clean power.

I settle for a half way approach. Each of my outboard preamps has enough clean power, per input, to power a dozen or more mics so one mic works very well.

Some famous name consoles have 16+ inputs yet only enough phantom power to power 4 mics total. Some have very litte buffering so that when one mic's power gets a demand and starts to sag... they all start to sag.

Many mics now have voltage regulators built in to the body minimize the degradation.

I'm curious to know what solid state mics he compared the tube mics too.

I tried to look up his console, but the company only seems to make hi-fi turntables these days.

best regards,
mike

Phantom power sag is a feature, Mike. 

It's kind of like an automated ducker/compressor where all the mics are sidechained to one another. This assures that no one mic is louder (or less distorted) than the others. So you could say it's a quality-control feature (as Obiwan Kenobi would say, "from a certain point of view").

:-)

What was I thinking?

:-)