Do I Need A Preamp?

Question

Here's my set up. I've got a Dynamic XLR (3 pin) microphone. This will go though an XLR cord into a XLR female to 6.25 mm phonejack/minijack male converter. I then use another converter to change the 6.25mm phonejack/minijack to 3.5mm phonejack/ minijack which pugs into my computer. Do I need a preamp (preamplifier)? If I do, where will it go in the connection?

Answer 1

Try it and find out. You won't hurt anything. Most computers will work fine with that mike. A few, like Macbooks only have line in connectors, and you'd need a pre-amp.

Answer 2

I'm guessing you probably won't be able to plug that mic. into the mic input of your sound card. The defacto standard is from the Soundblaster from Creative Labs, though most computers these days have sound hardware on the motherboard (MUCH cheaper!) But it works with some mics and not others.

Probably what you'll need to do is use a preamp with a 'line out' output, which you connect to the 'line in' input on the computer.

And here again I'm not exactly sure. The 3-pin mic. uses a balanced line. One wire is ground and the other two are balanced wrt ground. This is a noise-cancelling strategy since any noise picked up in the two wires will cancel out, one being positive and one negative. The bad thing about this is that it requires a transformer at the end, which is kind of expensive. I'm not sure a simple adapter will make the mic. work properly with a pre-amp that isn't made for balanced-line input.

If it does work, though, it doesn't matter where you put the pre-amp. Anywhere between the mic. and the computer should do it.

Answer 3

The output to speakers is from the computer, so the power output signal ( line out or speaker port ) could be directed into an amplifier ( not necessarily a preamp ), that will power your speakers.

If you are asking about using a preamp to amplify the signal going into the computer, I don't think you need that, as the computer sound cards are usually set up for very small signal strengths.

As an alternative, you can use an amp to receive the signals from your mic, then use the amp line-out port to go into the computer, using a converter if necessary ( I think most amp line-outs are 1/4 inch TRS type jacks )