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Scott Dorsey Scott Dorsey is offline
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Default Vintage Shure 55c, trouble getting good sound quality

wrote:
I am looking for mic help!
I just bought a vintage Shure 55c high impedance microphone, a new
vintage style 7' cable (3-pin amphenol to 1/4"), and a 1/4" to XLR
transformer from radio shack. I have connected it to several
different sound boards but struggle to get good sound quality.
Everything sounds muffled, like the bass is missing perhaps.


Yes, those mikes are that way.

I purchased it on ebay, and the seller said the sound quality was
"amazing", though he said he tested it on a ham rig, and I don't know
much about that. I've been doing tons of research about impedance
matching, and I made sure to buy the right cables and all that, and
yet I can't get this thing to work the way I had hoped.


The old 55 has no top end, no bottom end, and the pattern is just
godawful. It is far worse than the SM-57 as a PA mike because the
gain before feedback is just awful.

I've posted a sample that I recorded at a radio station I work at.
Please take a listen and let me know what you think.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...05960483515961

Is it broken? Is it just old? Could I be wiring it wrong?


No, they sounded awful when they were new too. You might try an active
DI box to reduce the load on the thing, but don't expect it to sound
as good as an SM-57.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."