NV Tone mic? I just noticed.

[Ken Carr]

Howdy y'all. I just saw reviews today for the first time for a product that has been out I think for a year. NV Tone mic and Duo preamp. The YouTube reviews appear very flattering. Do any of you AGFers have any experience with this product yet? If so, what are your honest opinions? I have the Lyric installed in one guitar. I am curious how it compares to the Lyric mic.

[varmonter]

Interesting.. I listened to several
Of these YouTube vids. Antoine Dufour whose tone I usually enjoy. I thought sounded
A bit ice picky as did most if the other vids.
Way too much nail to string bite for my taste.
This is all subjective of course. I dislike
That there is no Di out on the preamp
Perhaps case width was more important.
I would like to see a revue with
This In a band context..
It is a pretty thing though.
Perhaps less mic in the blend
Would sound better to my ear.

[Ken Carr]

I have been thinking about changing out the K&K in a guitar for a Dazzo and installing the Sunnaudio BL-1 preamp inside the sound hole. I was wondering if the NV Tone internal mic would work well with the Sunnaudio on-board blender pre-amp or any other on-board pre. I don't know if the NV Tone mic has to work with their proprietary Duo pre-amp. I'm not ready to sink money into pickups and gear right now. I just like imagining the possibilities. Ultimately I would like to have more on-board control of a dual-source system with the ability to control the volume, blend, and shape the tone of a good pickup and mic. I was wondering if the NV Tone mic would be a good contender for a hotrod system.

[varmonter]

I saw one blurb where they said
The mic runs on 48v phantom
Which is supplied by the preamp.
But alot of pres do that.and 48v is common.
Should be standard.

[jamison162]

I've been following NV Tone for the past year or so. Specs are on their website I believe, but I highly doubt the mic will take a full 48v...will blow it up. It's a small internal electret mic similar to the K&K mic in the Trinity system. (I just checked and the operating voltage on the NV Tone mic is 1-10 volts). Another cool feature is no batteries; the preamp is rechargeable.

NV Tone has been working on same updates to the preamp but put off the release due to CV-19. In fact, they dont even sell the Model Duo on their website anymore, but have totally turned over sales to a sole vendor, Thomann.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by varmonter

I saw one blurb where they said
The mic runs on 48v phantom
Which is supplied by the preamp.
But alot of pres do that.and 48v is common.
Should be standard.

These internal guitar mics almost never take 48 volts phantom power. That requires a three wire scheme, like XLR. Internal guitar mics are almost always electret and take 9volts+/- of bias power, a different powering scheme that only needs ground+hot wire. This one comes with what appears to be a standard 1/4 inch guitar jack. They could be using a TRS jack to supply a balanced phantom power, but I doubt it. It just appears to be a fairly standard electret mic that is mounted inside the guitar.

[Ken Carr]

That's why I think the NV Tone mic might work well with an on-board blender pre-amp like the Sunnaudio BL-1, powered by a 9v battery.

[jamison162]

Originally Posted by Ken Carr

That's why I think the NV Tone mic might work well with an on-board blender pre-amp like the Sunnaudio BL-1, powered by a 9v battery.

Pretty sure that's not going to work. A small, simple preamp like that is not designed to power an electret mic. There's more to it than just wiring a battery into the circuit. The BL-1 is an onboard "active" preamp, hence the need for the 9v battery.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by jamison162

Pretty sure that's not going to work. A small, simple preamp like that is not designed to power an electret mic. There's more to it than just wiring a battery into the circuit. The BL-1 is an onboard "active" preamp, hence the need for the 9v battery.

Right, you need a preamp that supplies bias power to the mic. The Sunnaudio MS-2, Grace Felix or Alix, DTar Solstice, and a number of others are examples. These are all external preamps. There are some onboard preamps that provide power, the DTar Wavelength (it has a different name now that I forget), the Baggs Dual Source, probably some others.

[Ken Carr]

Has anyone been able to make a comparison of the NV Tone mic with the LR Baggs Lyric? I wonder if it can do something that the Lyric can't do.