Audio Help!!

[John Merizalde]

Hello, I am planning on buying a Beachtek XLR adapter for my camera, and was wondering if any of you know what is the cheapest type they make, and where I could find it cheapest on the internet. I also like to know where I could find the Audio Technica 835b cheapest on the internet. Please, make sure these are new, unopened, and from reliable sources. Thank you for your time, now please respond quickly.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Ummm....I think you'll do better by searching the web. Cheapest Beachtek is the DX2, (I think) and as far as the AT...probably B&H or Sweetwater, but there are new dealers on Ebay.
But...go to www.google.com and search, you'll probably find better deals.

[Glenn Chan]

Hi John,
I think you should have responded into your original thread?

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=41266

Your questions are kind of similar to your issue in that post.

2- To get a quick idea of how much something costs, I suggest a quick search on B&H. They sponsor this site and have excellent prices. They're usually around the lowest price you can get.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/?BI=155

B&H -- The Professional's Source
East Coast · tel. (800) 947-8002
hours: Su 10a-5p / Mo-Th 9a-7p / Fr 9a-1p · Holiday Schedule
Widely regarded as the giant of the camcorder retailers, B&H has served imaging markets for more than 30 years. Throughout those decades, they've developed a richly deserved world-class reputation for honesty, customer care and on-time delivery. Their retail store in midtown Manhattan is as big as a football field... on your next visit to New York, don't leave without stopping by to browse for an hour. The B&H staff is highly knowledgeable and they aim to please. My favorite thing about B&H is that it's very much a family business. You'll feel right at home.

[John Merizalde]

Ok, so does anybody else have any advice?

[Patrick King]

John,

You just got really good advice from two old pros (look at the number of posts they have contributed to this forum).

Their advice was to do a little homework at the websites they gave you and then come back with specific questions (...model 2 only has two XLRs and model 3 has three, do I need three?...stuff like that).

You're asking people who have no idea what you're planning on recording, to spoon feed you the answer you want, and honestly, if you lurk around this forum for long you'll find a general reluctance to advice the 'cheapest' anything. Good value is often discussed, as is the right tool for the job, but queries about the 'cheapest' anything aren't often discussed.

[John Merizalde]

Ok, I want the Beachtek DXA 2 XLR adapter, and the Audio Technica 835b shotgun mic. I read where one guy said he got the former for $80 and the latter for a little over $200. So, can now anyone help? I have asked him where, but he hasn't responded yet, and so I just wanted to know what your opinion on it is, and how much do you think is the lowest cost, and where. That's it, that's all I want to know.

[Glenn Chan]

John, without repeating myself too much:

A- Before you buy those two items, strongly re-consider if it's what you want. The AT835b is very large compared to your camera, and you will have problems mounting it without having the mic in the shot and having the camera easy to handle and weight-balanced.

You can find out the dimensions of the AT835b at the Audio Technica website:
http://www.audio-technica.com/guide/...x.html#shotgun

You will also need to figure out how to mount the shotgun microphone on your camera. The only mount I know of that may clear the mic out of frame is from Lightwave Systems (something like that), and costs over $200.

And you may also want a windscreen, which is more $.

If you go with a different microphone the overall costs can be significantly lower and you may be able to get much better quality.

B- As Spot pointed out, try the following places to pickup new gear:

Auction sites like eBay. eBay has an element of risk, but you can get great deals on used and even new, sealed-in-packaging items there. It's hard to say what the price is. It depends on how long you can wait, how many items go up on eBay, and what the spread in pricing is. If it's on eBay, it's generally a better deal than online stores. But there are also a whole bunch of caveats (getting scammed, customs, hidden brokerage fees, items not what they are, tardy shipping, not getting into bidding wars).

Classifieds like the classifieds forum on this site (you can post a 'want to buy' thread; read the stickies), craiglist, mandy.com, etc.
Similar to eBay. You may be able to find better deals this way.

Stores. B&H is usually very close to the lowest price. You can save money if you can find a "demo" or b-stock model, which aren't new but very close. Pay attention to tax (may be none), and outside US: customs + hidden fees.

froogle.com, pricegrabber.com are price comparison sites that you can try. If the price seems too good to be true, run the vendor through resellerratings.com. Check B&H first. www.samys.com and B&H shows $240 (+tax+shipping?) B&H shows $120 for the beachtek. I would guestimate 10% less if you really shop around. eBay may be lower.

Educational/academic discounts?

Do your research and you will get a good idea of how much the items cost. Take a quick look on eBay for completed listings for alternate spellings of the items (you have to specifically search completed listings). If some items show up then you can *maybe* expect something like 30% less than B&H (this highly depends on your patience).

You just got really good advice from two old pros (look at the number of posts they have contributed to this forum).

I may have a lot of posts, but I'm definitely not a pro.

And I'm not old either. ;)