Lo-Z/Hi-Z???

Im looking to pickup some good mic cables and noticed there are quite a few differnet types.
Some being Lo-z, some Hi-Z. What is the differnce and what would be a good mic cable type and brand for dynamic/condensor mic. thanks

 

hello ragele,

'Z' is the letter in electronics that refers to 'Impedance'. So what you are looking at are Low Impedance and High Impedance cables.

Off hand, i would say low z, but it would be best to try to find out what your microphone manufacturer recommends as far as using low or high z cable.

greg

[ December 18, 2003, 10:25 AM: Message edited by: teleharmonic ]

 

thanks Greg, i was wonding about if Impedance had anything to do with it. im using the good old sm57 so ill find out what it requires. thanks

 

no problem ragele,

shure sm57 is a low impedance mic.

cheers,
greg

 

Ragele , the difference is in the electronics a low Z input is like a mic pre/input to a mixing board (300-600 ohms usually) with a XLR ( round 3 pin connector ) a hi Z input is like a guitar input on an amp it has a 1/4" phone plug ( like on your guitar ) these are in the 5000-10000 ohm range ) they do not overlap IE sending a high Z input to a low Z input will not work very well and vis-versa.

The different cords you can by ( mic cable etc.) are sorted by quality mainly Radio Shack = crap , this is because the cable itself is of low quality , the better the cable the better the sound 90% of the time ( of course if the sound source sucks so will the recorded sound)

Moral BUY GOOD CABLES

I hope this helped

Later
Buzz