lav jack help

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vip77

Active member
Hello all,

I want to connect a Countryman B6 to my Marantz PMD 620 via a 1/8" (3.5mm) jack.

The Marantz pmd 620 has an input sensitivity of 6 mVrms/ 30 kohms.

Should I:

A.) Order the Countryman b6 with a preconfigured connection such as http://www.countryman.com/images/wiring/E6_B6_ZP.png

or

B.) Get a pigtail and solder on a 3.5mm jack

I've tried contacting Countryman directly 3 times and they're no help.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'd like to get it right before wasting money/destroying equipment. And I know absolutely nothing about Zener diodes...
 
The B6 needs power, be it from a bodypack transmitter or hardwired XLR with phantom power. The datasheet for the 620 says it supplies phantom power, but only at 5V.

I've never had anything but excellent customer service from countryman, but if they can't help you, get in touch with the guys at Trew, Coffey, Gotham, or any of the other pro shops and they should be able to tell you what you need to do, and they'll wire it up for you.
 
The B6 mic capsule itself only needs a couple of volts. The hard-wired XLR adapter takes 48v phantom and provides the couple of volts to the capsule. When it with a wireless, the transmitter provides the voltage and that's not anything close to 48v. I'm sure you can set it up to interface with the 1/8 jack on the Marantz recorder using the 5 volt "mic power" it supplies.
 
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Jordan's pretty much got it, but even more simply put, the OP needs to supply phantom power to the B6 - it's a condenser mic, after all - but only 5V and not the more-standard 48V. vip77, I think the suggestion of contacting a pro shop like Trew or Location Sound is a great one. You've got a tricky situation and they may be able to point you at a preamp or power supply that would be cheaper than a mixer. No solution comes to mind from me, though, apologies.
 
vip77 said:
Hello all,

I want to connect a Countryman B6 to my Marantz PMD 620 via a 1/8" (3.5mm) jack.

The Marantz pmd 620 has an input sensitivity of 6 mVrms/ 30 kohms.

Should I:

A.) Order the Countryman b6 with a preconfigured connection such as http://www.countryman.com/images/wiring/E6_B6_ZP.png

or

B.) Get a pigtail and solder on a 3.5mm jack

I've tried contacting Countryman directly 3 times and they're no help.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'd like to get it right before wasting money/destroying equipment. And I know absolutely nothing about Zener diodes...
Click to expand...

From the datasheets provided by Countryman and Marantz on their websites, it would appear that the ZP connector option is the correct one for the PMD620.

The 620 provides 5v power on the mic input jack. This can be turned on and off in the 620 menu.

The Countryman B6 operating voltage is "1 to 2 Volts" (quoted from Countryman's data sheet for B6). The versions of B6 that require high "phantom" 48V power are the kind terminated in XLR jacks, which is NOT the version you need for the 620.

Although I have not personally tried this combination of B6 and PMD620, I have a 95% confidence factor that this would work as specified by the respective vendors.
 
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