Voice Amp/Mic help

[King_Ninja]

Hey guys. I've read all the posts that I can find regarding sound systems, and I have a question. I recently bought a Radio Shack voice amp and a unidirectional mic element. I wired the mic element to a 1/8" plug and tried it out with the voice amp. No matter what I try, I can't seem to get any output from the mic. I can faintly hear it when I tap on the mic, but cannot really hear it at all when I try to speak through it. When I plug in a set of headphones into the input jack and use it as a mic, it comes through loud and clear. I also tried a microphone that plugs into a PC, and it doesn't work either. Is there something special that you have to do to get one of these unidirectional mics to work? I seem to be missing something. Help!!!

 

Thanks,

Rich

TK-3944

[Stomper]

Hey guys. I've read all the posts that I can find regarding sound systems, and I have a question. I recently bought a Radio Shack voice amp and a unidirectional mic element. I wired the mic element to a 1/8" plug and tried it out with the voice amp. No matter what I try, I can't seem to get any output from the mic. I can faintly hear it when I tap on the mic, but cannot really hear it at all when I try to speak through it. When I plug in a set of headphones into the input jack and use it as a mic, it comes through loud and clear. I also tried a microphone that plugs into a PC, and it doesn't work either. Is there something special that you have to do to get one of these unidirectional mics to work? I seem to be missing something. Help!!!

 

Thanks,

Rich

TK-3944

 

 

Hey Rich,

 

If you are using a "standard" RS amp, they need what's called an "electrocet" (powered) microphone. It's the one that has an inline battery in the cord that plugs into the input of the amp. You can do a mod to the RS amp that will make it compatible with non-powered microphones. What it does is leach power from the amp's 9-volt battery to to the non-powered microphone... that mod is in a thread around here somewhere, or you can just buy the "lapel" microphone from RS that has the in-line battery.

 

 

Hope that helps!

[King_Ninja]

Hey Rich,

 

If you are using a "standard" RS amp, they need what's called an "electrocet" (powered) microphone. It's the one that has an inline battery in the cord that plugs into the input of the amp. You can do a mod to the RS amp that will make it compatible with non-powered microphones. What it does is leach power from the amp's 9-volt battery to to the non-powered microphone... that mod is in a thread around here somewhere, or you can just buy the "lapel" microphone from RS that has the in-line battery.

 

 

Hope that helps!

 

Cool, thanks. I'll give that a try.