Question for the sound equipment-savvy!

[CarpeDeo]

Just a quick question for those who are savvy with sound equipment.

I have a couple of wired Shure stage microphones with no on/off switch. Because there are times, we want to turn off/mute the mic from the stage, we use microphone cables that have on/off swithces built into the head.

However, when I went to go buy some new microphone cables, the dealer told me that it's really really bad to have on/off switches built into the microphone cable. He said something about impedance and gain and such . . . but I didn't really understand.

Can anybody clarify why it's not good to use on/off swithces built into the cable for microphones?

Thx!

 

[Leeroy]

Very bluntly, loss of volume/quality. The moment you have a contact like an on/off switch, the impedence of the circuit increases. For sensitive sound equipment, this can mean a few dBs difference. If tee switch is a poor contact, it can also mean added noise. Just use a sound desk and fade them down. You can pick up little 4-channel mixers that run on 9V batteries, and fit in your hand.