Triton Fethead for higher levels?

Felipe Henao

Felipe Henao

Well-known member
Having some low sensitive mics like the Azden SGM-1X condenser battery powered mic, and an encore 100 dynamic, have been thinking in buying this preamp.
I know it needs phantom, which would be provided by a low gain mixer. Other mics I own like the AT875 do not need this since they provide good levels.
By the way Triton just released a new version besides this for phantom powered mics.
Any experience or advice with this device?
 
A Fethead will add the needed gain. That being said, The Azden will just get noisier. It's not a very good mic in my opinion. Hopefully your Encore 100 will be OK. There have been quality issues with this mic coming out of China.
 
Interesting however think that increasing levels will decrease noise because camera and mixer will need less gain.
The encore has a fantastic audio and is made in China, at least mine. Bought it recently at B&H. 2 FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
 
Felipe Henao said:
Interesting however think that increasing levels will decrease noise because camera and mixer will need less gain.
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In theory this makes sense, but is the signal from the Azden SGM-1X mic itself clean ?

If the Azden mic is inherently noisy all by itself, then no amount of gain is going to produce better audio.

Can you get access to a good mixer ( like a Sound Devices mixer ) just to see if the signal from this Azden mic is clean ?
( you could probably figure this out in about 10 seconds with a good mixer and a decent set of headphones )
 
Felipe Henao said:
Having some low sensitive mics like the Azden SGM-1X condenser battery powered mic, and an encore 100 dynamic, have been thinking in buying this preamp.
Click to expand...

Adding more electronics to the signal chain to compensate for a low output mic is, IMHO, the wrong path. Better to put that money toward a better mic that has sufficient output for your needs.
 
Good points probably the azden is as is now a back up, How about dynamics like the Blue encore 100.
Have not tryed the Shure SM58 but reviewers say is far better the encore 100 than the Shure
 
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I own the AKG P220 and is fine for me, but on location or traveling or risky conditions a mic with low price and decent quality is ideal.
Say dangerous places either the type of people or weather moisture conditions
 
Bruce Watson said:
Adding more electronics to the signal chain to compensate for a low output mic is, IMHO, the wrong path. Better to put that money toward a better mic that has sufficient output for your needs.
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Well, maybe. It really depends on what you are going for. I have a number of very low out put mics that I love the sound of for certain things. Changing the mic would change the sound so...

I suspect that in this case you are right about the use.
Though I have to say that a good mic pre like the MixPre is a really good investment. So in this case it may be for the wrong reasons but it gives you a very clean input to whatever you are recording on, and it makes most of them sound a bunch better than they would otherwise.
 
Simply adding gain to the signal from a low-sensitivity microphone with above-average self-noise will do nothing but bring up BOTH the signal and the noise together.
Net effect: thinner wallet with no practical improvement of recorded tracks.
 
Richard Crowley said:
Simply adding gain to the signal from a low-sensitivity microphone with above-average self-noise will do nothing but bring up BOTH the signal and the noise together.
Net effect: thinner wallet with no practical improvement of recorded tracks.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your interest BUT watch this:

 
Felipe Henao said:
Thank you for your interest BUT watch this:
Click to expand...

But the mics they are using ( Sure SM58 and Rode NTG-2 ) are not inherently noisy, so boosting their signal makes sense. The mics you have listed could be much noisier than either of the mics in these tests.

So yes the Triton Feghead is a good product that supplies 20 dB of clean gain, but I am highly suspicious of the mics you are trying to boost, they could be very noisy and produce garbage audio when boosted.
 
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