I bought a Sony ECM-DS70P for recording acoustic guitar and vocal on my iHP-120. I was attracted to the ECM-DS70P due to it's size and cardioid pickup pattern. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the Live Recording guide, the sensitivity (-38dBV, ±3.5dB) is pretty low. If I set the gain to 12 and place the mic 6' from my guitar soundhole, I get a signal that barely moves the level meters on playback. Any more gain causes too much background hiss.
I'm thinking of pairing the mic with a small preamp, such as
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...tem=5739284533. However, I don't know if the 20dB gain of this preamp will be enough for me. Does the iHP-120 EXT. MIC. volume setting of 12 correspond to a gain of 12dB or to something else? Also, is the 9V plug-in power of the above-mentioned preamp compatible with the DS70P?