Denecke PS-2 > Denecke AD-20 > Sony PCM-D50 = Cleaner output?

[yoclay]

Someone sent me a Denecke AD-20 preamp (no phantom power) by accident.

for those that don't know here is the blurb on it:

The AD-20 is a high quality battery operated microphone preamp coupled with a low noise 20 bit ADC. The SPDIF outputs are optical and coaxial and can drive standard consumer DAT machines or computers that accept digital audio I/O cards, such as the Zefiro ZA-2. The main use for the AD-20 is location recording. Most low cost DAT machines have noisy front ends and a good preamp with a higher bit converter can improve the signal to noise by up to 15dB.
Features :-

Low battery indicator LED
Low noise 125 dB EIN unweighted at max gain (+45dB)
Dynamic range at minimum gain (+17dB) is 97dB unweighted
Individual gain pots for left and right.
External 9 volt input for studio work.
Long battery life of 8 to 10 hours from one 9 volt battery.
Optional line input cables with 22dB pads (10K input Z)


Specifications :-

SIZE: 3" x 5.75" x 1.25"
WEIGHT: Approximately 1 lbs.
BATTERY PACK: 6 alkaline "AA" batteries
INPUT: Balanced 3 pin XLR at 10K
OUTPUT: SPDIF optical and coaxial

Was on the path to reselling it, when it occurred to me that perhaps the optical input going into my Sony PCM-D50 recorder might be better than just going straight from a PS-2 XLR passive adapter. In this case I would go Denecke PS-2 (phantom power) >AD-20 (microphone preamp with mixing pots) > Sony PCM-D50 recorder.
One of the reasons I bought the Sony was for it's great noise floor and decent preamps (well at least compared to many recorders out there). I know that the passive PS-2 adapter yields great sound with the recorder. So my question is, would the AD-20 significantly improve it?

 

[Allan Black]

I've got the D-50 and you'd have to get some great addons to improve its specs with its internal mics. So I'd say, the AD-20 wouldn't significantly improve it.

I also bought the companion Sony 48V XLR adaptor .. uber expensive and turned out to be a real pain just to get it connected. It does allow phantom mics/shotguns to be used, but the adaptor has been discontinued.

Cheers.