GENERAL GUIDELINES
Your microphone is a valuable and important investment. Like most
recording equipment or musical instruments, it requires common
sense and basic care to keep it functioning properly. Given care, your
new microphone will perform dependably for decades.
PHANTOM POWER
R84 Passive Microphone
Phantom power is not required or recommended for the passive R84.
With a correctly wired cable and a properly working phantom power
supply, there is actually little danger of damaging an R84
microphone with phantom power. However, passive ribbons such as
the R84 can be damaged if ground (Pin 1) is accidentally shorted,
miswired, or hot patched in a patch bay to (Pin 2) or (Pin 3). Using
phantom power with a faulty or miswired cable or a defective supply
can severely stretch or break a ribbon.
Since passive ribbon microphones and other transformer-coupled
microphones can be particularly vulnerable to phantom-power, it is
recommended to make disengaging phantom-power before
plugging and unplugging the microphone a habit.
R84A Phantom-Powered Microphone
The R84A needs a standard 48V phantom-power source to operate,
but ensure that phantom power is disengaged before plugging and
unplugging the microphone. The loud 'pops' that occur when the
microphone is plugged in with phantom power engaged can
damage speakers, headphones, and ears.
The phantom current draw for active AEA ribbon mics is 7 milliamps.
IEC specifies P48 power which should be able to deliver 10 milliamps
per input. Some USB and battery-powered audio interfaces will not
deliver this. Please check the current values available on your unit to
ensure the best performance.
5
