Phantom underpowering?

[jondog]

If a condenser mic wants 48v phantom and I give it 41.4v, will it work?

 

[brianrost]

Probably, depends on the mike...some mikes may be more sensitive to voltage than others. Lower voltage typically reduces the max SPL the mike can handle.

I used to own a Shure board that put out 24V phantom and it worked fine with my EV condensers. I'd get wary if the phantom is well below 24 volts.

So what the heck puts out 41.4V????

 

[jondog]

I dunno . . . the mfr. site for the M-Audio Audio Buddy does not list a phantom voltage, a magazine review says 41.4v, and an ebay seller says 48v. GC is blowing them out so I'll probably just buy one anyway.

 

[Eric Cameron]

I dunno . . . the mfr. site for the M-Audio Audio Buddy does not list a phantom voltage, a magazine review says 41.4v, and an ebay seller says 48v. GC is blowing them out so I'll probably just buy one anyway.

They are 48 volt. At least, that's what they are supposed to be. What mic is it that you need power for?

Rock on
Eric

 

[jondog]

OK cool. It's an MXL cheap condenser mic. 990 I think. I already bought it, but haven't tried it yet, and the "manual" lists no phantom voltage #.

 

[Droog]

For what its worth, most condensors don't need a full 48v. Like Brianrost said 24v will get it done most of the time. Don't sweat that .6 volts.

 

[craig.p]

Boy, I hate to resurrect such an old thread, but I have a question about underpowering with respect to current, not voltage. Has anyone ever run across a situation on modern boards where a condenser mic's sound quality or SPL tolerance suffered because it wasn't getting sufficient current? I just got a mic that needs somewhere between 5 and 6 ma, which I believe is on the high side, though not unreasonable. I'm assuming both the Peavey PV-8 and the ART Tube MP I have coming in soon can supply this current. Is that a safe assumption or a foolish one? Neither manufacturer quotes its phantom power current capacity, only its voltage. The PV-8 uses global phantom power, so I'm assuming one voltage source for multiple mics means I'll be okay with just this one mic requiring phantom power, but what are your thoughts on the Tube MP? Or on modern phantom-power circuits' current capacity in general, relative to mics that need upwards of 5 ma?

Thanks in advance.

 

[sonic assassin]

oddly, ive experienced weak phantom power screwing with a mic. apparently, neumann mics DONT like anything BUT 48v, and prefer a transformerless pre. otherwise it starts to distort in a not musical way. this was in an small neve console.

 

[craig.p]

Yeah, that's the sort of behavior I'm hoping not to see with this condenser. Except here I know I'll have 48 volts, I just don't know if I'll have the 5+ mA of current the mic needs. I did a lot of web searching and found nothing. Checked at random a couple of external phantom power supplies' specs; both top out at 14 mA. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing. The other thing is that this is an SM86, pretty popular, and so if there were problems with too-high current consumption I'm sure I'd have been able to find at least some evidence of it somewhere on the web, and I haven't been able to.