sennheiser mke 300
 

Hi,

Does anyone know what type of adapter I'll need to attach a Sennheiser MKE 300 shotgun mike to a Beachtek DXA-4P? The Sennheiser site says it has a "1/8 inch" cable. Does this mean I'll need a mini/XLR female/male adapter?

You'll also need to figure out the best way to mount it to the Beachtek. The 300 has a shoe mount and is designed to go on the camera itself. There is a similar thread running over on the Near Hear This section of the board.

Right, I figured I'd attach the Sennheiser to the shoe attachment at top of the GL2, connect the Beachtek to the underside of the the GL2, mount entire thing on a tripod, connect Sennheiser cable to Beachtek XLR female connection via an adapter, however, I cant seem to find a female mini/male XLR adapter. Surely someone else has done this, I've seen a number of posts regarding Sennheiser and Beachtek products. Or is the mini cable on this particular shotgun mike unusual?

Doesn't the Beachtek already have a 1/8" mini-phone jack (AUX) that you can use to connect the MKE-300? See pictures at:
http://www.beachtek.com/dxa4p.html

whoops. Sorry, I was thinking that was a 1/4" connection.

Why would you need a Beachtek???
 

the MKE300 has an 1/8" stereo plug, doesn't the GL2 have a 1/8" stereo input? If so, you don't need the Beachtek, unless the onboard preamp of the GL2 is not so good? Just my 2 cents.

Unless there has been a recent design change, the MKE300 plug is 1/8" mono miniphone. If connected directly to the GL1/2 mic jack it will result in sound only on the left channel.

I use a mono socket to stereo plug adaptor to feed the audio signal to both stereo channels. If you are brave and there is no warranty problem, you can cut off the mono plug fitted and replace it with a stereo plug, connecting the core of the cable to both sleeve and tip.

John Willett, technical guru of Sennheiser UK, seems to approve of this. There do not seem to be any impedance problems.

Incidentally, you can do the same with the K6 range of microphones, making up a female XLR to stereo 3.5mm jack lead. Provided the lead is short, there are no problems with going unbalanced straight from the mic.

The only impedance issue is the with the output connected to both input channels in aprallel, the load id soubled (300 vs. 600 ohms). This will result inthe mic going into clipping at a bit lower sound level. Not a problem for most venues, but if you are in a loud environment it might be anissue.