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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB: The Classic Live Audio Board => Topic started by: John Lackner on April 15, 2021, 03:13:38 PM
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I have access to an assortment of lav mics and transmitters made by a variety of manufacturers of both the mics and transmitters. My question here is - is there any cross-compatibility between manufacturers, meaning, can I plug a Shure lav mic into an EV transmitter, or Mipro mic into a Shure transmitter, etc. Also, could I possibly damage anything mixing and matching components? I'm not asking about cross-compatibility between transmitter and receiver, just mic and transmitter.
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if you have good solder skills and correct tools. yes. each transmitter mic pair has a standard configuration of wires and pins. so you would need to change a shure lav 4 pin connector and redo the connector to connect to EV. or change out to the AT. 4 pin it is possible yes.
https://www.point-sourceaudio.com/support/wiring/
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if you have good solder skills and correct tools. yes. each transmitter mic pair has a standard configuration of wires and pins. so you would need to change a shure lav 4 pin connector and redo the connector to connect to EV. or change out to the AT. 4 pin it is possible yes.
https://www.point-sourceaudio.com/support/wiring/
Thanks. Time to brush up one my micro-soldering skills.
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Thanks. Time to brush up one my micro-soldering skills.
Before you do that, you should look up the pin-outs for the various belt packs and connectors.
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Shure may have what is closest to a standard with Line 6, Mipro, and FBT compatible with Shure as best as I can tell. Many mics require not just a different pin out and connector but a different bias current, so they require a change in the resistor value. Those little resistors are a pain to solder as are most of those small connectors (Hi Rose especially!). It may be a lot easier to purchase a mic with the correct connector/pin out if its available from the manufacturer.
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This is why I love companies like DPA and Point Source, who have changeable adapters depending on your transmitter. DPA adapters obviously aren't the cheapest, but Point Source adapters aren't too crazy expensive. That said, I'm glad my wireless inventory is only Shure, it makes life much easier only having one connector to deal with.
As noted, there's really no electrical difference between the actual microphones of various manufacturers, the difference is all in the connector and resistor. Tiny resistors are tricky to work with. A TA4 or TA3 isn't super hard to solder, as long as you have a very narrow tip on your iron. I've never found a solder-on 1/8" TRS that would hold up over time, locking or otherwise, but you might have better luck than I do. Hirose connectors are a huge pain to work on, so I hope you don't have any Audio-Technica in your inventory!
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The newer style of Hirose connector is not too bad, they have a small cable chuck similar to a Neutrik that is a lot easier to deal with than the small set screw and the crimp bushing on the cable.
Just to make it fun Audio Techhnica has a new style wireless connector than screws on called the CS series, it has to be really small inside to work on.
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Also, could I possibly damage anything
Possibly your reputation, hard to say without more info ... is a headset Mic an option? - slight topic swerve sorry ...
Cheers
Martin
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There are two main different electrical topologies in lav mics, the obvious difference being one or two wires inside the cable shielding. To some extent you will be limited in which ones will work with which manufacturer of wireless packs. Most of the time it's possible to make adapters or reterminate the cable, though.
BTW Shure is now offering their new Twinplex mics with a DPA-style microdot screw-on connector with adapters for different packs (Shure has two different connector types again, TA4F and Lemo). These seem to be 100% compatible with DPA stuff, if you were wondering.
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{..} BTW Shure is now making a DPA-style microdot screw-on connector with adapters for different packs (Shure has two different connector types again, TA4F and Lemo). These seem to be 100% compatible with DPA stuff, if you were wondering.
That's quite a price difference, too!
-Russ