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K&K Meridian Solo, Headway EDB1 (+ LR Baggs Para DI mention)
Buco
NOVA, DCDeity Ivanovski maple/spruce
I decided to do this write-up since there isn't any user info on the Meridian mic on the forum and not a whole lot more on the internet.
I picked up one of these mics and will try it out soon. As soon as the EDB1 one arrives too, which I picked up from eBay and it's on the way. I was considering getting the simple K&K power supply and preamp route, going into the LR Baggs Para for further EQ and feedback control but decided to have less pieces in the chain and I was always impressed with the Headway preamp, at least on the paper.
At the time of ordering the mic I didn't realize the K&K preamps also provide required power. Did some reading and found out that stated 5V mic requirement isn't that specific and people are using it with other preamps and it gets powered with even up to 18V. The EDB1 sends phantom voltage on both 1/4" and XLR inputs so it should be fine with the Meridian mic.
Para DI is a great piece of equipment, served me very well. But if this new setup works out I'll put it for sale. As it's name suggest it's a DI but it's much more than that. It's a fully functional, great sounding acoustic preamp. It has a very high input impedance, 10MOhm, and I emailed LR Baggs tech support to ask about that. They confirmed what I concluded earlier, the high impedance design is there to allow for piezzo pickups but it accepts low impedance microphones as well, which is how I used it. The reply said that the input design doesn't affect the tone of the source, you only might have to put more gain on a signal with the low impedance source, which the Para has plenty of. They also confirmed what I mentioned in a different thread, the real issue is if you send a high impedance source into the low impedance input.
Regarding the Meridian mic, it's well made. Everything is good quality; the jack, cable, the bendable mic arm. The mic screen is permanently attached. It came in a well padded plastic case.
It also came with the mounting bracket. That part is a little disappointing. It's a two part 90 degrees brackets that connect with a velcro. You're supposed to check and make sure the bracket angle fits your guitar and if not bend the pieces until it does. That all works fine but once you do everything and even stick the pieces together closer for a tighter fit, the bracket can still slide on the guitar fairly easily. It would take a small bump in the middle of the performance to knock it out of position. This could be fixed by attaching small suction cups to the bracket so that they grab the bracket against the guitar. The clip where the microphone attaches is weak plastic and it broke after a few tries of putting the mic in and out of it. I assumed it's metal, looked like metal, and wasn't treating it like an egg but still, it broke way too easy. I used a clip from the Myers mic and it works. I think I'll skip the bracket completely and just use the clip with a putty. Especially because one of the recommended positions according to K&K is getting the mic snug against the top of the guitar on the upper bout side. Once I find out what's the best spot for it, then I'll decide on how to attach it. I don't think it needs to be anything elaborate, a suction cup with a mic wire tied to it should do the trick too.
I'll put up pictures once I have everything.
To be continued...
I picked up one of these mics and will try it out soon. As soon as the EDB1 one arrives too, which I picked up from eBay and it's on the way. I was considering getting the simple K&K power supply and preamp route, going into the LR Baggs Para for further EQ and feedback control but decided to have less pieces in the chain and I was always impressed with the Headway preamp, at least on the paper.
At the time of ordering the mic I didn't realize the K&K preamps also provide required power. Did some reading and found out that stated 5V mic requirement isn't that specific and people are using it with other preamps and it gets powered with even up to 18V. The EDB1 sends phantom voltage on both 1/4" and XLR inputs so it should be fine with the Meridian mic.
Para DI is a great piece of equipment, served me very well. But if this new setup works out I'll put it for sale. As it's name suggest it's a DI but it's much more than that. It's a fully functional, great sounding acoustic preamp. It has a very high input impedance, 10MOhm, and I emailed LR Baggs tech support to ask about that. They confirmed what I concluded earlier, the high impedance design is there to allow for piezzo pickups but it accepts low impedance microphones as well, which is how I used it. The reply said that the input design doesn't affect the tone of the source, you only might have to put more gain on a signal with the low impedance source, which the Para has plenty of. They also confirmed what I mentioned in a different thread, the real issue is if you send a high impedance source into the low impedance input.
Regarding the Meridian mic, it's well made. Everything is good quality; the jack, cable, the bendable mic arm. The mic screen is permanently attached. It came in a well padded plastic case.
It also came with the mounting bracket. That part is a little disappointing. It's a two part 90 degrees brackets that connect with a velcro. You're supposed to check and make sure the bracket angle fits your guitar and if not bend the pieces until it does. That all works fine but once you do everything and even stick the pieces together closer for a tighter fit, the bracket can still slide on the guitar fairly easily. It would take a small bump in the middle of the performance to knock it out of position. This could be fixed by attaching small suction cups to the bracket so that they grab the bracket against the guitar. The clip where the microphone attaches is weak plastic and it broke after a few tries of putting the mic in and out of it. I assumed it's metal, looked like metal, and wasn't treating it like an egg but still, it broke way too easy. I used a clip from the Myers mic and it works. I think I'll skip the bracket completely and just use the clip with a putty. Especially because one of the recommended positions according to K&K is getting the mic snug against the top of the guitar on the upper bout side. Once I find out what's the best spot for it, then I'll decide on how to attach it. I don't think it needs to be anything elaborate, a suction cup with a mic wire tied to it should do the trick too.
I'll put up pictures once I have everything.
To be continued...
Every note wants to go somewhere-Kurt Rosenwinkel
Comments
It has a nice sound but is howling like a pack of hungry wolfs.
I can't get more than half volume that I get with Myers mic before Meridian starts howling. So K&K claim of high feedback resistance regarding the Meridian mic didn't turn out to be the case in my hands. I'm also realizing how good the Myers mic is. @bopster are you still using it?
K&K advertises very wide frequency response and I can hear that. I tested all this in a pretty small space and small space is much more prone to feedback but I think the advantage regarding feedback that the Myers mic has would be the same in a larger space as well.
I was able to power up the Meridian with the EDB-1 from Headway.
I'll probably keep that, but that also didn't turn out to be better sounding than the Para DI. Features are about the same except that the Headway provides the phantom power on both the 1/4" and XLR inputs and of course is a dual source preamp. I'll wait until I play a few shows before I decide whether to sell the Para DI as that setup served me well and was always reliable. They are both great sounding preamps though.
There is a possibility that the Meridian mic is matched with K&K preamp and does better when the two work in tandem but I doubt I'll be spending money to find out. I might call them to inquire...
PS last night I saw a video of Michael Harris demonstrating Jokko pickup. Hard to tell how much of the direct guitar sound the mic picked up but it sounded very acoustic.
PS if you go to his FB page you'll find lots of info about the mic.
https://m.facebook.com/jokko.descendre
Bottom line it's not an improvement over what I have. Next thing I'm doing is creating for sale thread.
The Headway preamp on the other hand seems to have a little better notch filter circuitry. It's splitting hairs though. On the other hand the Para DI has less noise, again not a lot. But I was using the Headway with the power supply, Para is run by batteries so that could be why. Couldn't use batteries with the Headway, one battery terminal is broken, will have to replace that.
PS I fixed the battery compartment for EDB-1, it's just as noisy as with a wall power supply. This is not much but Para is quieter like I said. Also I feel as if Para has a smaller range of EQ than the EDB-1 but it's easier to get a usable sound while with the EDB-1 takes more work and it's easier to get undesirable results but offers a lot more range and possibilities.