rode lavalier with Tascam dr100 or Sony pcm10

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deleuze3

Well-known member
i have a question about the new rode lavalier. I'm really looking to buy it, but i have question.

I plan to buy a tascam dr100 and plug a rode lavalier with the XLR micon.

I thought of buying the sony pcm10 instead, since its a smaller unit,

1) can i plug the rode lavalier with a micon 2 directly into the line in (3.55mm) of the sony pcm10 ?
(on the specs of the sony, it says it gives phantom power, but not 48v. DOes the sony pcm10 offers enough phantom power for using the rode lavalier ?

2) will the sound of the XLR will be better in the tascam than the sound i can have with the sony pcm10 in the 3.55mm) ?


i found some specs for the sony PCM10 :

Input/Output
• Microphone jack (minijack, stereo), input for
plug in power
– Input impedance: 22 kΩ
– Minimum input level: 0.9 mV
– Rated input level: 2.5 mV
• LINE IN jack (minijack, stereo)
– Input impedance: 22 kΩ
– Minimum input level: 500 mV
– Rated input level: 2 V

since the rode lavalier is designed for a 3.5mm stereo minijack, with a power supply of 1V minimum, will the sony pcm10 will work ?

(my 2nd question would be : the fact that its a 1/8 connector instead of an xlr, will this make a big difference ?

Thanks in advance
Have a good day,
Julien
 
Last edited:
deleuze3 said:
1) can i plug the rode lavalier with a micon 2 directly into the line in (3.55mm) of the sony pcm10 ?
Click to expand...

No. You can plug it into the 3.5mm mic input, not the 3.5mm line input.

deleuze3 said:
(on the specs of the sony, it says it gives phantom power, but not 48v. DOes the sony pcm10 offers enough phantom power for using the rode lavalier ?
Click to expand...

The PCM-M10 3.5mm mic input provides Plug-In Power, not phantom power. Plug-In Power is kind of like a consumer version of phantom power. I haven't tried the Rode Lav with the MiCon-2 adapter, but it looks like it will be compatible with Plug-In Power. So it should work with the PCM-M10.

deleuze3 said:
2) will the sound of the XLR will be better in the tascam than the sound i can have with the sony pcm10 in the 3.55mm)?
Click to expand...

Most likely. Microphones connected with an XLR usually sound better than microphones connected with 3.5mm mini-plug.

It's a trade off. Going with the PCM-M10 you're going to have a smaller device that gets much better battery life than the DR100. The Rode lav with the mini-plug connection will likely sound really good. However, you're limited to only plugging in this single microphone.

The Rode lav plugging into the DR100 will likely sound a little better, and it will give you a 2nd XLR input for another mic. But it's a larger device, and it will burn through batteries faster.
 
That said, I wouldn't buy it before you try it. The MiCon adapter claims to require 1V of power to operate, and the output power spec of the Plug-In Power on the PCM-M10 is 2.5mV. Could be a problem, but you never know until you plug it in. I've plugged "pro" lavaliers with locking mini-plug connectors into the 3.5mm mic input on portable recorders before and they've worked fine. If you can't give it a test drive, the XLR Rode lav and the DR100 are more likely to be compatible.
 
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