Help with LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI

[Califiddler]

I recently had a Baggs violin pickup installed on one of my fiddles, and got a Baggs Para Acoustic DI to use with the fiddle.

The owner's manual says that, if you run an XLR mic cable out from the DI to a PA with phantom power, the phantom power will power the DI. There is an indicator light on the DI to indicate the presence of phantom power.

Last night I hooked everything up. I put the XLR cable into a channel of the PA that has phantom power and that we have used for phantom power before. Nothing happened. Indicator light did not go on, and no sound.

So I put in a 9V battery. Now there was sound, but still no phantom power indicator light, so the DI was running off the battery, not phantom power.

Read the manual again, but can't figure out what, if anything, I'm doing wrong.

So what's going on? Is the DI defective, or is there some simple step that I'm missing here, or what?

Thanks!

[sunkidd]

I had the same exact thing happen two years ago...
I quit trying to get the phantom power for PA...
Can remember now why it didn't work but think it was not enough current or power from the PA I have...
I noticed some hint of it in the manual and thought aaahaaa! that's why...

[crawdad]

Did you try a different xlr cable? Its possible that the one you used might have had a broken ground. Worth a try.

[Tim Bowen]

What sort of PA are you using, and what are the voltage specs for the phantom power? This is still a very fuzzy area for me. I *think* 48V is fairly standard for phantom power. I gig with a Mackie 808S powered mixer, and the specs indicate: Phantom Power +15V DC (?). That said, I've phantom powered both Radial J48 DI and Baggs Para DI with the Mackie at jobs with no issues.

http://www.lrbaggs.com/manuals/para_di_manual.pdf

The Para DI is new to me, I've gigged it a few times. My question for experienced Para DI users is how to systematically go about fine tuning the mids parameters in the live environment. I've been doing weekly acoustic-electric gigs for the better part of ten years, and have never needed to notch mids in my life until I recently added a twelve string to the stable. I'm sure I could get to the bottom of it in short order if I kept a PA system at the house, but it's sort of a tough dial on the fly at gigs with minimal sound check opportunities.

[Califiddler]

The PA is a Yamaha PA1200. I tried two different mic cables, so that's not the issue.

Any other ideas?

[Paul in Colorado]

I keep batteries in mine, but always run Phantom Power with no problems. Do you know anyone with a PA mixer (other then the one you gig with) you could test it with? A local music store maybe? If it works with a different mixer, you know it's a problem with the mixer rather then the preamp. Or try a different channel on the mixer you do use. There's always a chance that a wire or other componant got loose inside the preamp.

Just some thoughts for troubleshooting.

[Califiddler]

Problem solved, with help from Baggs tech support.

First of all, my post above saying that the PA was a "Yamaha PA1200" was wrong. It's a Carvin PA1200.

After posting here, I tried the preamp with my PA, which is an old Yamaha EMX860ST, I think. The 48V light on the preamp came on and everything worked fine.

So I called Baggs tech support. They said that some PA's come with 48V phantom power, which the preamp requires, but some come with only 15V. Apparently, large-diaphragm condenser mics and preamps require 48V, but smaller-diaphragm condenser mics may require only 6V, 9V or 15V. The mic which we had previously powered with the Carvin amp was the drummer's headset mic. Baggs tech support said that a mic like that probably requires no more than 15V.

So I went to Carvin's website and checked out the manual for the PA1200. It mentioned phantom power, but does not specify the voltage, even in the specs.

So I e-mailed Carvin. They confirmed that the PA1200 has only 15V phantom power, not 48V.

Those of you who said that it was a voltage issue were right. The phantom power on the Carvin was under-powered. In general I like Carvin, but I think it is pretty sneaky of Carvin not to specify the voltage for the phantom power in the owner's manual.

The Carvin is our bass player's PA, not mine, so the only effect on me is that if I ever use the preamp through that PA I will need to have a 9V battery. But in the future I would check out the phantom power specs of any PA that I was thinking about buying and I would not buy one with less than 48V phantom power.

The only thing that is still confusing to me is Tim Bowen's post, where he states that he has powered the same Baggs preamp with 15V phantom power from a Mackie PA. Tim, are you sure that you were using phantom power? Is it possible that you had a battery in the preamp, that the preamp was running off the battery, and that you just thought that it was running off phantom power?

[Tim Bowen]

Originally Posted by Califiddler

The only thing that is still confusing to me is Tim Bowen's post, where he states that he has powered the same Baggs preamp with 15V phantom power from a Mackie PA. Tim, are you sure that you were using phantom power? Is it possible that you had a battery in the preamp, that the preamp was running off the battery, and that you just thought that it was running off phantom power?

Wow... yeah, there IS still a battery in my Baggs, didn't even think about that. You know, I guess I was thinking that, like running power to a stompbox, battery would be 'defeated' by the dominant power source, but that's an entirely different scenario, after applying a little common sense. I'll remove the battery at a gig later this week and see if there's an issue. Like I said, this remains a grey area for me at the moment; thanks for the heads up. I recall reading a few beefs online about the Mackie phantom power voltage, and maybe I'll learn something here along the way.

The other active DI I've gigged over the last few months with the Mackie is the Radial J48. There's no battery option there at all, as it's phantom power or bust. However, the Radial's specs page boasts that it "uses phantom power but steps up the internal rail voltage by combining a timing chip and a British-made switching transformer... this brings the rail voltage high enough to allow one to hit the J48 with as much as 10 volts without distortion!" -

...whatever the heck this translates to in the real world. I could definitely stand some more education on the subject.

[Tim Bowen]

Okay, the Baggs Para DI DOES NOT properly work with the phantom power of a Mackie 808S powered mixer. I removed the battery at line check before last night's show; while the status LED was dimly lit with phantom power, the output volume was nonexistant. The Mackie is a solid piece of gear that has served me well for years, but this chaps me a bit for certain.

Thanks for the heads up, Califiddler. I put the battery back in the Baggs and gigged it for the evening, but it's back to the Radial J48 for me. The last thing that I care to worry about is batteries in a DI. The other thing that continues to bamboozle me about the Baggs DI (and I know EVERBODY raves on it), is that, regardless of instrument played, I seem to need to attenuate frequencies quite a bit with bass, mids, and high end. Hence, I guess I just don't get it. The Radial active has excellent headroom and fidelity, works with my Mackie's anemic 15V phantom power, and provides a more robust signal with less option anxiety.