Is there a big quality difference in a battery powered mic vs a phantom powered mic

[Tom Morrow]

I like having battery option for the mike to avoid running down the mixer batteries in "run n gun" situations. Sound devices recommends batteries instead of phantom to keep the mixer battery life long.

But I absolutely hate the way that if I forget to turn the microphone off the battery may be dead next time I try to use it. So when I can I like to go phantom powered; it's one less thing to worry about and hassle with.

[Bruce Watson]

Originally Posted by Suzanne Lucas

I am looking at purchasing an Azden SGM-2X I just discovered it takes a battery instead of phantom power, does this make a big difference?

Typically a mic that can take phantom power will sound a bit better than batter power. But that's missing the point.

The point of phantom power isn't the mic, it's the cables. That is, balanced cables. Long runs of unbalanced cables can act like antennas, picking up all kinds of interesting noise. Phantom power over balanced cables typically makes for noise-less cables, even over huge distances.

If you are running a few cm (say, from a camera-mounted mic directly into the camera) then it probably is of little consequence to you. If OTOH you are running from a mixer to a mic on a boom poll that's 100m away, then it's a considerably more important consideration.

[Tom Morrow]

One more thing to note is that in many cases there is no good way of knowing when the battery in your Mic is getting depleted. By the time you start noticing lower levels you may have already recorded hours of poor quality audio. So on important projects you really have to start with fresh batteries every time to be sure, which gets to be a hassle.