It sounds like the start of a joke, but the question “What connector do you use with a wireless mic?” is serious business indeed. There’s no connector between a handheld wireless mic and the receiver. However, as soon as you bring beltpack/bodypack transmitters in the equation, all bets are off. And while not obvious to the general audio community, people who regularly work with lavalier and headworn mics are well aware of the issue here.
Currently, there is NO standard for the connection of such mics to beltpack systems, and unless you confine your mic choices to a single model, you’re bound to encounter this problem. And even if you only use one brand of wireless — you’re still not on safe footing, because even within one company’s offerings, multiple variances of connectors, pinouts and operating voltages exist, with dozens of incompatible configurations. It’s time the industry got together to address this dilemma.
A Grim Fairy Tale
Once upon a time, hardwire mics for pro applications came with a wide array of incompatible connectors. Today, everything in the cabled mic world uses the XLR connector developed by Cannon in 1958. That didn’t become a standard overnight — it was another dozen years before the industry got on board and widely adopted the three-pin XLR-M (“M” for male) as a universal connector on nearly every mic. And the trusty XLR has served the industry well for a half-century.
Few people realize that 48-volt phantom power was a 1966 development of audio legend Georg Neumann, who was fed up with using batteries, external supplies and/or 12-volt AB power (sometimes called T-powering) to operate condenser mics. Fortunately, the 48-volt standard was eventually adopted throughout the industry, and today, phantom powering makes life easier audio engineers everywhere. So a unified standard can work and be a good thing for everybody.
Yet over the years, the industry has suffered through a lot of hardwire mic connector standards. Those included:
• Amphenol’s 91-MC4M — a screw-on 4-pin connector found on many Electro-Voice (among them the 636, 644 and 664) and Shure mics, (including some of many probe and pistol-grip Unidyne/Unisphere models).
• Amphenol’s 91-MC3M — a screw-on 3-pin variant found on units such as the Shure’s early Model 55 “Elvis” mics, the E-V 630 and 726 and others.
• Cannon’s UA-3-11 — a monster-sized, 1-inch diameter part that looks like an XLR on steroids.
• On the Euro side of the pond, connectors included Tuchel styles (often on vintage Sennheiser and beyerdynamic mics) and endless variations of DIN plugs, with three to seven pins, sometimes with screw-on locking threads.
Imagine…
A world without the XLR standard would be a mess. Imagine if Shure had to make multiple models of the SM57 to interface with 25 different models of consoles, or if you needed a replacement cable at a gig and had to hunt through a half-truckload to find a cable that had the correct connector, pinout and wiring. A nightmare? Absolutely, but this is not far from the scenario that currently exists with trying to interface a headworn or lavalier mic with a wireless beltpack.
To make things worse, headworn and lavalier mics tend to be pretty fragile. These are not only miniature in size, but also constantly in motion, being pulled on/off performers during rapid costume changes, and subjected to unending levels of sweat, makeup, hairspray, saliva, drops, yanks, pulls and step-ons. In this perilous environment, a mic’s lifespan is limited, unlike that road-thrashed RE-20 that still functions after decades of abuse.
When a headworn mic meets its demise, wouldn’t it be nice to simply grab another headmic from the mic drawer, plug and go. No problem if all your mics are made for the same company (and/or model), but if not, you may be out of luck. That Beyer model just won’t plug into that Lectrosonics beltpack, the AKG’s don’t work with Shure’s and the 4-pin Hirose plug from your Audio-Technica mics don’t function with Sony’s 4-pin Hirose gear.
It’s true that specialized adapters can make such magic happen, but these are expensive (somewhere between $30 and $100 for an adapter or pigtail conversion cable) and no one I know likes the idea of inserting extraneous adapters into our signal chains.
Okay, Time for a Standard
This situation has existed too long, and we’ve heard all the excuses. Every manufacturer claims their proprietary approach is the best, and they don’t want to make any compromises. If that was really true, then why don’t they develop individually hand-lathed, titanium plated, mu-metal shielded XLRs with platinum pins for their high-end studio mics, where it would “really” make a difference? Oddly, that doesn’t happen.
But with a standard among headset/lavalier mic connections you could grab any model of mic, plug it into a beltpack and you’re off to the races. And dear manufacturer, a new standard should be able to accommodate your specialized functions — Lectrosonics for one, uses a five-pin connector, with the extra conductor used for a line-level input.
No problem there, just as the 5-pin MIDI standard included two unused (and unassigned) pins to support any non-standard functions, such as running power over the line to a strap-on MIDI performance keyboard. Yet when anyone connected two MIDI devices together to send notes or performance data, it worked. And this same approach should apply to the new wireless beltpack connection standard, where users should be able to connect any mic to any beltpack and pass audio.
At the same time, the new standard should be open and not based on any particular manufacturer’s proprietary connector, such as Lemo’s mini push-pull connector. It’s popular with the theatre crowd and is rugged and dependable, but pricey, hard to wire and only available through Lemo.
The Good News
In my mind, the best alternative is the “TA” (mini-XLR) connector, which has been used in different forms on models from AKG, Audio-Technica, Beyer, E-V, Lectrosonics, Line-6, Mipro, Sabine, Shure and TOA — among others. It’s non-proprietary, so anyone who wants to make one can do so.
Even if we could simply wave a wand and make this happen, there are a number of hurdles yet to leap. I would suggest a five- or six-pin design, which could leave some unused pins to support custom functions. Beyond pinout wiring (so far, at least everyone agrees pin 1 = ground), there are other issues as well, including operating voltages, levels and dealing with 1/4-inch pigtails for wireless guitar/bass, but these are hardly insurmountable.
The Downside
Any change in standards will inevitably have a stinko downside, as users are faced with hardware upgrades. Yet throughout time, humans have survived numerous other techno-calamities, ranging from the U.S. switchover to digital TV (throw out those analog sets), laptops without floppy drives and the FCC’s sale of the 700 MHz wireless band. Each of those was major, yet we scraped by and in comparison, a universal beltpack connection standard is a breeze.
There’s no need to force any manufacturer to get aboard a universal standard. They can simply keep making the own systems, floppy drives and analog TV’s while the rest move forward.
True, there would be a transition phase along the way — that’s what those pigtail adapters are for. But given the inherently short lifespan of wireless beltpacks, headsets and lavaliers, much can be handled through natural attrition. Honestly, does anybody use any vintage lavs and earset mics? Heck, there isn’t even an eBay collector’s market for a rockin’ 1970’s 49 MHz guitar wireless.
Time to Move Ahead
The advantages of a universal standard are many. Fewer proprietary models to stock means less inventorying of multiple versions of essentially the same thing by manufacturers and dealers, and would translate into lower prices. End users could be more easily prepared for any eventuality — when you need another mic, just grab what you got — the same way you’d grab another SM58. It will be a good thing and a single standard will help make sure the show goes on.
Now, the time is right — at least before next summer’s FCC frequency selloffs shred the 600 MHz band. And this month’s AES show is a perfect backdrop for discussions between dealers, manufacturers and end users. Let’s get that fire started.
