kenneth0923 Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 My guitar wireless receiver has both XLR and 1/4" phone outputs. Is there any benefit to using the Mic input on the HD500X? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfsmith0 Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Having a balanced input could make for a quieter signal. Plus, the manual volume control in the back there would allow you to optimize signal levels far better than the 6dB pad available for Guitar In. Assign Mic In to Input 1 and you'll still get the tuner, too. The more I think about it, the better I like this plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenneth0923 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 Then that is what I will do. Thanks for the feedback. don't use the tuner on the Pod. I have a rack tuner that is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenneth0923 Posted October 1, 2014 Author Share Posted October 1, 2014 you may also consider that chosing to connect to the POD by the 1/4 guitar-in input you get an additional parameter that affects the signal: Z (impedance).. the above parameter is operative only on the guitar-in input, and it is ininfluent on all the other physical inputs Can you elaborate on why this is important? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfsmith0 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 It is important for guitars with passive pickups. The impedance interacts with the windings of the pickups to, basically, form a low pass filter. It might also change the non-linearity (I.e., crunch) of the signal. The lower the impedance the greater these effects. Since your guitar is connected to a wireless system, you won't see this effect since your pickups are not seeing this impedance. They are seeing the impedance of the wireless interface. But hurghanico is correct. Mic In does not have the selectable input impedance of Guitar In. In your case it makes no difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfsmith0 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Also see if the noise changes as the mic gain control is adjusted. At min gain the Mic_in actually has 6dB LESS gain than Guitar In while at max gain it has 40dB more. It's possible that there may be less noise on Mic In if the signal coming from the wireless unit is big enough to allow you to use minimum Mic In gain. Try it and see. In my opinion, less noise is always a good thing, generally, but opinions will vary on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenneth0923 Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 Thanks everyone. I will experiment and report back my findings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clay-man Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 The noise floor is ultimately determined by the A/D converters and preamp quality. It's one of the reasons I want to upgrade to a POD HD because it's less noisy than my M-Audio. Noise in the signal is bad for high gain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel_brown Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Input Z settings can be important. The default is Auto which is typically 1m. When you lower this number to say 32k it reduces the high end portion of the tone, giving it a darker sound. I'm not going to explain why or how this works, don't care. But this is how it sounds when I change it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfsmith0 Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Input Z only effects the tone when it interacts with the inductance of passive pickups. The OP is going thru a wireless system . Input Z should have no impact on his tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfsmith0 Posted October 5, 2014 Share Posted October 5, 2014 Now that is interesting. I thought it was a real resistor they switched in. But a given input Z has a different effect on humbuckers than they do in single coils. That is, lower Z will darken the sound on both but it has more effect on humbuckers due to their higher inductance. Which effect do they implement? Perhaps something in the middle. This is an easy thing to check. I should take my unit back into the lab and check this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfsmith0 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I took my HD500 into the lab and measured the "real" input Z by inserting resistors in series with my signal source and varying them while watching until the signal dropped 6dB. I ran the test at 100 Hz because at 1kHz there was too much coupling at the higher impedance settings (1M and 3.5M) causing invalid readings. The readings below indicate to me that changing the Input Z parameter on the HD500 changes real resistors. It is not a simulated/emulated effect. I'm seeing real resistors changing. I'll also start a new thread so this info is easier to find. HD500 Input Z Selected / Input Z Measured 22k / 22.21k 32k / 32.03k 70k / 69.8k 90k / 90.1k 136k / 136.5k 230k / 232k 1M / 999k 3.5M / 4.57M (noisier result than the others) So, for the purposes of this OP, I still maintain the input Z selection will have no impact on his tone since he's driving the HD from his wireless receiver, not a guitar. Regarding noise, we'll have to wait to see if Kenneth finds the balanced input more quiet or not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinDorr Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 This is good data to know. Thanks, Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel_brown Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Hey I have a wireless system and can hear differences when I change Input Z. I have an old analogue wireless, if that makes any difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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