Old radio shack 33-3017 Condensers... Low impedance?

[Tobiah]

Hello,

I have a pair of Radio Shack Condensers, model 33-3017. When
I originally bought these, they came with a cable which used
an XLR connector at the mic, and a standard phone plug at
the other end. This always confused me. I can't tell if
the mic really puts out a balanced signal or not. There was
no apparent transformer in the supplied cable. The mics say
600 Ohm impedance. So, are these mics an attempt to create
a unit that will satisfy either low impedance balanced signals,
or high impedance direct? It seems to sound fine with a balanced
cable going into a balanced input, but the whole supplied
two-conductor phone plug cable is confusing.

Thanks,

Toby

[Les Cargill]

Tobiah wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have a pair of Radio Shack Condensers, model 33-3017. When
> I originally bought these, they came with a cable which used
> an XLR connector at the mic, and a standard phone plug at
> the other end. This always confused me. I can't tell if
> the mic really puts out a balanced signal or not. There was
> no apparent transformer in the supplied cable. The mics say
> 600 Ohm impedance. So, are these mics an attempt to create
> a unit that will satisfy either low impedance balanced signals,
> or high impedance direct? It seems to sound fine with a balanced
> cable going into a balanced input, but the whole supplied
> two-conductor phone plug cable is confusing.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Toby

They put out a balanced signal. It's
polarity-flipped wrt an SM57, or at
least mine is.

There's a camera battery @ 6V that's about
half the length of an AA cell. Two of those
in series makes those a much more useable mic.

Dunno why, but it's a good snare mic.

--
Les Cargill

[Les Cargill]

Tobiah wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have a pair of Radio Shack Condensers, model 33-3017. When
> I originally bought these, they came with a cable which used
> an XLR connector at the mic, and a standard phone plug at
> the other end. This always confused me. I can't tell if
> the mic really puts out a balanced signal or not. There was
> no apparent transformer in the supplied cable. The mics say
> 600 Ohm impedance. So, are these mics an attempt to create
> a unit that will satisfy either low impedance balanced signals,
> or high impedance direct? It seems to sound fine with a balanced
> cable going into a balanced input, but the whole supplied
> two-conductor phone plug cable is confusing.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Toby

They put out a balanced signal. It's
polarity-flipped wrt an SM57, or at
least mine is.

There's a camera battery @ 6V that's about
half the length of an AA cell. Two of those
in series makes those a much more useable mic.

Dunno why, but it's a good snare mic.

--
Les Cargill