Super tight XLR adapter and hissy old mic

jacklawtey

I picked up an old MD407 the other day which has had an XLR adapter soldered on. I've never in all my days hard such a hard job getting one of my XLR cables in there. Even when it's in, there's no satisfaction, it's just kind of.. in there. When I go to record with the mic, I get two things: 

- Insane hissing
- Insanely low output of anything that isn't hissing 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7y3z1a2x3y96rxu/clip.mp3?dl=0 

Here is a clip. I'm wondering whether this is a case of buy a new XLR cable, hope for the best or just send it back to the seller as defective? 

Nerine

If another mic doesn’t have all that hiss and has a lot more output, then send back the MD407. 

Have you tried another cable? 

I wouldn’t expect a mic to hiss like that as such. Sounds like loads of preamp gain to me and is just noise floor related stuff. 

Or have you had to turn up the mic gain that far to get a usable level?