A Binuaral Experiment

Unfortunately my beloved Soundprofessionals SP-TFB-2 binaural mics have started to malfunction together with my Tascam DR100. For some reason I am getting an extreme amount of hiss and the funny thing is that both recorder and the mics are working fine on their own with other equipment! But just not together anymore, can anyone solve the mystery? The binaural mics sounding great when connected to my Mbox2 and Tascam DR100 XLR preamps sounds great with other mics! Very strange I say! Recorder has even been off to Germany for a health check and came back fine…

Anyhow, to avoid silly VAT charges when ordering from the states and also out of pure curiosity I decided to buy and try the Soundman OKM II binaural microphones . Instead of being fitted with two XLRs they use a 3.5 mm connection but my package came with the A3 DC powering adapter for use with recorders that do not have a 3.5 mm mic in with plug in power (like on my DR100, doh!). Since I am bringing it down to line level using the adapter and line in on the DR100 I am not getting as high levels as I would have if I connected the microphones directly to a powered mic input. So the noise floor was a big concern for me. However, I am very pleasant surprised of the result of my first test!

This is a recording in a very very tine little park near Arsenal Stadium called Gillespie Park Local Nature Reserve. I had very low  readings on my meters on the DR100 and have afterwards boosted the recording +21 dB (!). Sounds pretty damn clean to me!