Naive question from poor educator

[Doug Lange]

Frank-
If the teachers are shooting inside with a stick mic, wouldn't a cardioid condenser be a bettter option than a shotgun? The cardioid is more foregiving off axis. But I am just a poor teacher and go with a low budget. My cheap AT ATR35s lavs work great for what we do at school. It is simple enough that I can just hand it to a teacher and say, "this is the 'on' switch. Turn it on or you will get no audio." At about $30, I never worry about breakage, either.

Steve, thanks for being so thorough.

[Ty Ford]

Originally Posted by Steve Leverich

Bill, Ty, I meant no disrespect in my comments whatever; on the contrary, I've seen nothing but excellent advice in all things audio from Ty - that's probably why it surprised me so much to see something "glossed over", or whatever - my only goal in posting was to prevent any more "internet mythology" from spreading- Steve

I repeat, running long unbalanced cables is asking for trouble.

Further, a transformer is a poor and clunky choice where a simple adaptor cable will work fine.

Steve House, thanks for your observations. Writing paragraphs where sentences will do is where I'm at for forums. I could launch into a chapter about capacitive and inductive reactance, but that's like telling someone how to make a watch when they ask what time it is.

This ain't the place for that. Know what I mean?

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Bill Davis]

SNIP

- my only goal in posting was to prevent any more "internet mythology" from spreading -
FURTHER SNIPPAGE
Peace all - Steve[/QUOTE]

Amen to that.

It's the nature of this kind of discourse that some folks will read a few simple posts on a complex subject and somehow suddenly feel that they magically understand it deeply.

Those of us who've been around a few decades longer generally know better.

There's always more to learn about most things in life.

Keeps life interesting!

[Ty Ford]

Originally Posted by Steve Leverich

Ty, I have to take exception to your comment, "running long unbalanced cables is asking for trouble as well because they are not shielded. " -

I've been working with audio since 1960 when I bought my first Webcor reel-to-reel recorder, have taught electronics in both military and civilian environments, been working with video gear from cassette to 2" quadruplex machines since 1970, have been an engineering tech, tech writer and/or service manager for various companies including Memorex, Ampex, Sony, etc, and until now I have NEVER heard anyone claim that un-balanced audio cables were not shielded.

Ah, finally found your specific post. Steve, to me (and others), running audio on a braid as is done with unbalanced audio, means there is no shield. The audio is exposed.

If you want to consider the braid of an unbalanced cable a shield, go ahead. The cables we are talking about are two conductor; one center and one braid.

One can shield an unbalanced connection by encasing it in another form or shield, but when you have two wires hanging out, both carrying signal, the audio (or whatever is on them) is a lot more vulnerable to RFI and EMI.

I stand by my comment. A braid is not an effective shield.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Steve Leverich]

I also stand by mine; if you were to re-read my initial post I think you'd find that we agree on far more than we disagree. However, I've found over the years that almost nothing in the technical fields can be accurately described in terms of black or white - there is always something that's measurably better or worse than something else.

This is not to say that, given a choice, we shouldn't go for the known best solution - only that there are other solutions that may work somewhere in between best case and worst case.

edited by moderator

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Occasionally this board is moderated for purposes of not allowing certain types of outside links, images, or comments towards one another.
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Unless someone has something significant to add to this disussion, it's now closed. PM me if you feel it needs to be reopened.