Fantastic having an explaination of microphones directed at engineers rather than musicians. I would love some more on amplifier circuits in the same way.

Ahh....now it all makes sense. So all the Elvis moves on stage were involuntary electric shocks! :)

Having Doug on the show has been a great addition to the eevblog ever since the start when you were blowing up cheap-ass multimeters together :-) I think the microphone series is very worthwhile because i knew quite little about it before. Keep it up Dave & Doug!!

Thanks for getting Doug to do this series. This is my favorite so far because I have always wondered how phantom power works.

I loves Doug's little jabs at the audiophile market.

I remember when this was published, it all was Greek to me, and probably I half-watched it. Now, because of the EEVblog, and other inspirations like Fran and so many, many who stopped doing videos long ago, for some reason today this series was in my feed and it was like a revelation! Wait a minute - I can do these things, now! I can build it! I have the technology! Thank you Dave!

I love watching this series. As an audio engineer, it feels good to have a chance to go over the basics again! Also great to introduce newbies to audio engineering and electronics. Cheers for the uploads Dave.

The learning never stops. Wished I took up sound engineering when I was in college. Thanks Dave for the series. Think you've hit another goldmine.

Microphone design has proven to be a really deep and rich subject, even at a "basic" level!

I think this is the most engrossing video you have done yet Dave. You should get guests on more often. The years Doug has put in really show in the passionate way he talks about microphone design.

Wow that guy knows so much about microphones. Like he must be the guy that everybody consults on microphones.

Even though I'm a mechanical engineer (well, almost) and know close to nothing about electronics (hope to change that), I still enjoy watching this series. It's entertaining to see how a person who knows a lot explains it in a witty way.

These videos are brilliant and exceptionally helpful. Doug's passion for his craft really shines through. Id love to see more of these videos. Get him back in the lab!

I am an audio Engeneer student, This stuff is awesome!

I hope dough got a good few pints for this, very good series so far!

Doug Ford is my hero!

Find those videos very interesting! Thank you a lot Doug and Dave!

Great series. Keep those mic videos coming :)

Great Series, I hope you get the next/last part uploaded soon.

This series is awesome!! It would be great to have a mic preamp specialist (Neve, API, etc) and other music electronic specialists to explain gear, circuits, and debunk myths

When this first came out I couldn't watch it, I just couldn't follow along. I still can't really, but I understand some of what is being said. Here's hoping that in a few more years I'll learn enough to really appreciate this!

I guess that this is also how the twisted pair cables work in an internet LAN cable by also using the instrumentation amp or some similar principle? I pity those who nag that the topic(video) is boring as their own field of knowledge is short and they can't see connections to different things. Thanks Dave! I did not give any interest in mics before but I see that it benefits greatly in my general knowledge :)

I didn't understand about 90% of this but I still thought it was great

Watch it twice! Once for actually hearing what they're saying, and the second time enable the automatic english subtitles. I laughed so hard, my wife came to check if I was alright :-)

"Nobody likes transformers these days" - yeah thanks to Michael Bay!

Thanx again guys! I love learning about the innards of my every day tools. :-)

love the puffs...

I must say I'm not really inito microphones, but I actually like this series. That's because Doug gives so detailed information, real-world examples and really covers a broad spectrum. I'd like to see a series on ADCsDACs/OpAmps/other building blocks of electronics. Any chance Dave will produce some hour-long FUNdamentals friday videos in a similar fashion?

Thank you both ...

won my subscription on the first video I've seen! love how you describe things.

I'm at 8:38 and trying to figure out how the source impedance for the S (assuming source on bottom, drain on top for this JFET) is lower than the source impedance on the drain. We're talking about from GND and VCC, right? I'm definitely missing something here. EDIT: The only thing I can figure so far is that this is actually a common-source JFET amplifier with the capacitor shunting the low-side resistor there to ground. Or, arguably he mentions there is more capacitance gate to source than gate to drain(later). That could definitely unbalance it, guess I assumed it wasn't that big of a difference at the frequencies we're at. And he seemed to act like it wasn't the same thing because they were separated by time he got to it.

Can you build some prototipes to show how it works? It could be more like the regular stile of this channel. ¡¡¡Beauty!!!

Man i love this series!

this is such a great series

Whoa this video is a real eyeopener for me. Great Vid!

Please show more things like this!

I wonder if Dave learned beauty, puff, and other expressions from Doug.

good explanation. Cough is bad matey.

Looking forward to the next video..

I still love all this mike lore!

Just get your own copy of: "Dickreiter, Handbuch der Tonstudiotechnik, Band I und II" it´s all in there in clear words, just like this series, and a *lot* more...:) Sadly it seems to be in german only, nerver saw a translated edition, jet.

I really really enjoyed this.

brilliant idea to invite head designers from different companies.

I always wondered about this.

Thumbs Up! Great Series.

Great explanation. Great people.

I want to see a balanced topology microphone!

Are you sure you have to connect shielding at both sides of the twisted cable? I heard it's not good.

How does the single that single ended preamp give us a balanced signal? The ground has me lost! (19:12)

9:48 Aren't pins 2 & 3 touching, effectively shorting out the microphone?

So, if i understood. In theory, dinamyc Mics are not affected by phantom power

Nutrik for your XLRs.

18:00 Could someone explain? Why "typically electrolitics" and not film caps for signal path? Is it still about costs and good enough or there is something about ECAP characteristics suitable for this application?

7:00 why is it capacitively coupled to the opamp? What are those caps for?

Does anyone here know that Doug Ford is also the current Premiere of Ontario

Dont know what they talk about but its relaxing :)

How can the Schoeps-type preamp voltage swing capability be increased? I have a Chinese copy which clips if the singer goes anywhere closer than 2ft from the mic! Can the output transistor collector-emitter voltages be increased by increasing the value of the base-collector biasing resistors?

Does the circuit at 9:50 have some name by which I can google it? There's one thing that I can not understand about it. Okay, we have the collector voltage fixed, good. To be able to work in the linear region, transistors need some voltage headroom between collector and emitter (determined by base bias voltage). Well, by looking at the circuit, one can deduce that this is provided by voltage drop on the base resistors, so collector-to-emitter headroom voltage becomes Vce = Ibase*Rbase + Vbe From this, it is natural to expect that when the AC amplitude of the input (base) voltage exceeds this value, we must hit the collector voltage (fixed by zener diode) and the waveform should become distorted. I.e., it seems that the maximum input/drive amplitude is set with base resistor and transistor beta. But SPICE simulation shows that this is not the case! When the input voltage amplitude exceeds base resistor drop, the DC offset at emitter magically shifts to accomodate any AC amplitude, and the real limit is V_ac_max = Vphantom/2 And no limiting at all (until the signal hits the rails, of course)! How this is possible? Moreover, it can be seen that when AC input exceeds the above mentioned limit (Vbe determined by base resistor), the voltage on a zener diode actually dips to accomodate the peaks. So, in a sense, AC amplitude limit is actually defined by base resistor voltage drop if we want to have stable power to our curcuit, but not in an expected way. Actually, this can be fixed by adding a separate zener diode for the base resistors. I.e., if we disconnect base resistors from the collectors and connect them to a separate zener diode having a greater voltage than the collector zener diode, we'll fix the common mode voltage at one level and collector voltage at the other, providing defined headroom for a signal and stable supply voltage at collectors.

"Let's have a look at balanced topology amplifier" What a cliffhanger !!! More than 5years later still waiting for this one ! Great series of video by the way, it's at least 3rd time i watch them all and each time i watch again i still learn few new things. "that's... brilliant" Any plane to have Doug Ford back ?

Nice tricks.

If I use a 48v mic wireless mic transmitter for my condenser mic to audio interface, would it deplete the quality of my mic... is it also liable to pick up unwanted sounds?

Transformers may be bandwidth limited but don't they still have enough bandwidth for the audio range?

I think Alexander Graham Bell used the principles shown back in 1876.

Dear friends... Basic question.... I have a Korg Pa3x keyboard and I want to use a head worn mid-priced microphone so that I can sing with my hands free whilst playing. Is there any specific microphone that I ought to look for if I wish to just directly plug the 3-pin XLR mic wire into the back of the keyboard without opting for wireless receivers and so on. Also don't know if a wireless receiver set-up could be connected directly to the keyboard or not? The Keyboard has got its own Speakers amplification interface and vocal processor built-in. Many Thanks in advance Raddis from UK

So if I buy a XLR Microphone, get a phantom supply, buy two XLR cables and a amplifier it should work? Would be great if you could reply, this is hurting my brain.

So.....what microphones should I buy?

I don't get how ground creates a balanced signal at the end.

What a tease ending as always... just about to get into some more details and BAMM!!! Nothing!!! :-|) Thanks for sharing as always. Way neat video and looks like a series I'm going to have to watch now that I'm looking into expanding up to 192kHz monitoring without aliasing with a 384kHz SB G6 USB sound card. Wondering what other ways there are to monitor into the ultrasonic range more effectively? Definitely have more than Bat's, Rat's and Mole's around us.

Where is the next video

Now it make sense !! I have Behringer c1-u USB microphone, which has quit low volume output. Is there any way to get phantom power into it ??? or make it output more volume ???

At the end, what does he say? A balanced what amplifier?

at 15:33 does Doug say "Wanker market" ! ? haha

Cool

next!!

Doug ford i think work for Jands electronics

Get that man a drink!

i love you guys :)

I dont know how good are you on designing but definelty on drawing.... I mean in left side you stubborn continue squeezzing components and also telling its gonna be hard to fit instead redrawing the schematic so they can fit

This guy should teach engineering somewhere

Why doesn't Doug have a youtube channel? :D

The wanker transformer market. Priceless! Great video.

Joe Khoury 1 second ago I'm a DJ, and run into videographers wanting to connect into my mixer. I don't have issues doing it. The problem occurs when they connect to the back of my speaker. It either lowers my output, or basically shuts off the speaker. I believe it may have something to do with phantom power perhaps? Is that something somebody here can explain. I don't have an audio receiver, but is there a setting to turn off phantom power?

screen is a faraday cage

Wanker market - yep, too many of those in the "sir didn't pay £10k+ sir isn't professional" - yeah, TV production i'm looking your way!

f*ing puff xD Is it a Farad?

Like the vid but don't like doug's way to talk about other countries and its marginal markets. You can still learn things from the ones you think are hopeless.

I knew a fella with $100,000 dollar set up in his house. Giant horns built right into the walls, ultra-snazzy tube gear, etc., etc. I asked him what he listens to on this system of his. Thrash punk music. Nothing else. Yikes!

I am from New Zealand so I am only watching this to laugh at the Aussie accents. Narhh, not really...

You just eat the time to technical bullshits to straight forward avoid the REAL knowledge!! Explain it simply and all will be understandable. We have a cable with two conductors and one ground .With dynamic mics has not a short circuit to need power to works and with condenser mics we have a power amp inside that it needs power to work so we need phantom power!! Thats it!!! WTF! You just do it to blow my mind!!!!!

Your English style is odd. Its not American nor British. Like the circuit, just the same.

Ok so how do you connect a phantom powered microphone into your soundboard that's all I wanted to know what a crock of yak dung are you talking about.

How many of these videos are there? Mics are interesting, but not that interesting.

I dont know how good are you on designing but definelty on drawing.... I mean in left side you stubborn continue squeezzing components and also telling its gonna be hard to fit instead redrawing the schematic so they can fit