Which microphone preamp? Advice needed!

eiker_ir said:
If you liked working with the JuicedLinks, the Riggy Assist series offers 30db of gain. I upgraded from the same CX231 model to the RA222 model and it's quite noticeable.
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Ah I was not aware that the Riggy had 30db of gain! Good to know. I thought all their stuff was 16db.
 
Spoke to Robert earlier. This is what he had to say regarding the CX231 gain and the new Riggys:

The original production model had 16dB. Before was discontinued, we increased the gain to ~27dB. There are no markings on the outside of the unit to distinguish the later models.

The Riggy preamps have about 30dB gain.
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I hope I had an original production... Riggy is on the way.
 
TheDingo said:
The Audio Developments AD071 costs $1,500 at B&H Photo, so the Sound Devices MixPre-D might be a better buy at $900.
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It depends where you are.

In the UK the Audio Developments unit is about £600, but the MixPre-D is about £750 - so it's the other way round in Europe.
 
Dark said:
This is interesting... can't seem to find it in the UK though :(

The Audio Dev is perfect but price is putting me off. The Fostex looks good but I can't find a single review or video of it, is this brand any good? The Sound Devices is great but from what I see you can't mount it on tripod and have the camera attached too. :undecided
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In the UK the Audio Developments unit is cheaper than the SoundDevices MixPre-D and the Fostex.

This is because Audio Developments is a UK company, SD are American and Fostex is Japanese - equipment is often cheaper in the country where the manufacturer is located. This is why the SD is cheaper than the AD in the USA.
 
Its a shame there aren't any reviews of the AD 071... it may have swayed me but I can't take a punt for £600+

Will let folks know how I get on with the new Riggy once it arrives :) I may grab another Lav also with lower impedance than the Rode Lav.
 
Dark said:
Its a shame there aren't any reviews of the AD 071... it may have swayed me but I can't take a punt for £600+
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I would have just rung up Audio Developments to see if they would loan you one to test.

They are a market leader in professional mixers in the broadcast industry and, if you are in the UK, it may have been very possible for you to get a loan to try.

Audio Developments don't make any consumer gear at all and *only* make professional broadcast equipment and the AD 071 would be made to that same exacting standard.

I have been using their small Mic. Pre. with integral MS converters for years - it is an excellent product and very well made. :thumbup:
 
Not a technical review of the AD 071 by Alan O'Duffy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGKKVWOflNg) as such, but an enjoyable and expert one all the same and, as John points out, makes ref to the fact that the similar high-quality electronics to Audio Developments high-end equipment is used. With its specs, Audio Developments reputation and UK pricing, the AD 071 is hardly taking a punt! Cheers, Roland
 
Throwback said:
Not a technical review of the AD 071 by Alan O'Duffy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGKKVWOflNg) as such, but an enjoyable and expert one all the same and, as John points out, makes ref to the fact that the similar high-quality electronics to Audio Developments high-end equipment is used. With its specs, Audio Developments reputation and UK pricing, the AD 071 is hardly taking a punt! Cheers, Roland
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Great link Roland - thanks.

John
 
Well I now have JuicedLink RM-222 and the Rode Lav with either Panasonic SD900 or Canon HF G25 is no better than with CX231. Quite disappointed to be honest.

I have ordered another Lav microphone (Audio Technica AT803) as Robert from JL pointed out the output impedance is 2000 on the Rode Lav whilst most other Lavs are around 200 and this could be causing an issue. Will test this as soon as it comes... the next move is to get an alternative mixer in to see if I can get better, cleaner gain as at the moment with the current setup I just have really low audio with hiss.

All I want to do is record with camcorder and lav and get crisp, clean audio. Hopefully I will get there eventually!
 
Audio is an afterthought for camera designers, especially in consumer camcorders. Both Juicedlink boxes you've tried output mic-level signals and then it has to pass through the probably less-than-stellar performing preamps in the camera, adding gain to bring it up to the proper level for recording. If the camera preamps are noisy, there's nothing you can do in terms of gain BEFORE the mic input to clean it up - raising it to line level with a different preamp between the mic and the camera just means you'll overload the camera inputs unless you pad it back down to mic level again, leaving you right where you started. There's a reason that double system shooting is so common with DSLRs and consumer camcorders.
 
As I said in a previous post on this thread, I have found no real difference between using the rode lav via my sound devices preamp (input impedance 2k ohms) and directly into a Sony pcm10 (input impedance 22k ohms): in both cases noise is consistent with a 25db self-noise mic. Cheers, Roland
 
If you are thinking of recording to a separate recorder, which many of us would suggest, you will find the sticky at the top of this forum useful. Cheers, Roland
 
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