RE: [Harp-L] do i need an impedance matcher?

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

One lesson I learned with the AKG wireless is that it's best to go all
XLR or all 1/4". Things just seemed to work better that way, even though
I was using a Harp Commander III which is supposed to do all the
impedance matching and switching as a direct box. 

I wish there was a good guide to all this stuff about which cables go
with hi-z/lo-z and how to recognize them. I look for "instrument" to
indicate hi-z but some have other vague terminology (or nothing) printed
on them. And the mics, you never really know except in obvious cases. 

So yeah, your case surprised me. Does this mean that the sampson 1/4"
output is lo-z rather than hi-z as you might assume being 1/4"?

If you got an answer offlist, or figured it out, share for the benefit
of others :^)

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Garry Hodgson
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 11:22 PM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] do i need an impedance matcher?


i was poking around in the manuals for my rig today, and notice
something that gave me pause.  i run an audix fireball V into a samson
airline 77 wireless into a digitech rp250.  the samson has both
unbalanced xlr and balanced 1/4" outputs, so i run the 1/4" into the
digitech.  i always assumed that 1/4" was 1/4", and that this was the
right setup.

now, when i run the fireball to an amp, i need an impedance transformer
to convert the low-z (5k-ish) fireball output to the high-z (250k) the
amp expects for it to sound good.

so looking at the docs tonight, i realized that the 1/4" output from the
samson is just 5K Ohms, and the input on the digitech is 500K Ohms.

do i need a transformer like i do for wired operation? i assume they
make such things.  any other advise for hooking this all together?

i was amazed at the difference it made when i switched my wired use to
xlr cable with transformer (vs. a cheater cable).  i'd like to get the
most out of my wireless, too.

thanks

-- 
Optimism and pessimism don't exist for me.
I'm a blues man.  I am a prisoner of hope.
I'm going to die full of hope.
- Cornel West



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