Crown PCC-160
A stage-floor microphone that gets around the reflection off the floorboards by working with it.
Overview
The Crown PCC-160 is a surface-mounted half-supercardioid electret condenser microphone, and the whole design is geometry. Crown's manual explains the principle plainly. A subminiature supercardioid capsule sits very near a boundary - a stage floor, a lectern top, a conference table, a news desk - so the direct sound and the reflected sound reach the diaphragm in phase. That adds 6 dB of sensitivity and eliminates the comb filtering you get from conventional mics placed near hard surfaces. It is the same boundary-effect idea behind Crown's Pressure Zone Microphone, but the PZM is omnidirectional and the PCC uses a directional capsule. Surface-mounting turns that supercardioid into what Crown calls a half-supercardioid: a supercardioid in the hemisphere above the boundary. The manual notes the arrangement also increases directivity by 3 dB, which helps when a monitor wedge is pointed at the mic.
The capsule is small enough to stay phase-coherent up to the top of the audible spectrum. Crown rates the frequency response at 50 Hz to 18,000 Hz at 30 degrees incidence to the surface. Sensitivity is very high - 22 mV/Pa open-circuit, or roughly - 33 dB re 1 V/Pa - and that is deliberate. Crown designed the PCC-160 to override mixer input noise in distant-miking applications, like a mic at the downstage edge with the console thirty feet away. Self-noise is 22 dBA typical, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 72 dB at 94 dB SPL. Maximum SPL for 3 percent THD is 120 dB SPL, so the mic will not overload on a kick drum two feet away, let alone a speaking voice.
Output impedance is 150 ohms nominal, 85 ohms actual, balanced, with a recommended load of 1000 ohms or greater. The mic is phantom powered directly from the console or any remote source supplying 12 to 48 volts DC positive on pins 2 and 3 with respect to pin 1. Current drain is 4 mA nominal. There is no in-line preamp box. The electronics are self-contained, which is one less thing to lose in a dark wing. If battery power is needed, Crown's optional PH-1A supply can be inserted anywhere in the mic line right up to the mixer.
On the bottom of the housing sits a three-way bass-tilt switch. Crown's manual is direct about how to use it. Flat is the general-purpose setting, cut tames room rumble and air-handler noise, and boost makes up for low-frequency loss when the mic sits on a small boundary such as a lectern shelf-top. The switch shows up in the period advertising too. Modern Recording (September 1985, p.7) described the PCC-160 as featuring an exclusive three-way bass-tilt switch for tailoring low-end response to unusual boundary sizes, and the same copy ran in Recording Engineer (June 1985, p.41) and Mix (July 1985, p.55). Crown was clearly pushing this mic at the pro audio trade that year. The pitch was aimed at stage reinforcement, podiums, news desks, and "hiding in sets" - the last being a film and television problem where a visible microphone ruins the shot.
The physical package is built for that work. The body is heavy-gauge all steel, and the manual says it protects the unit from accidental abuse, which is the polite way of describing a stagehand dragging a road case across the downstage edge. Two keyhole slots and screw holes in the base allow permanent mounting. The connector is side-mounted, so the mic sits flush at a stage edge or the top of a lectern. Crown notes the cable can be hard-wired for bottom entry if a customer wants it. A 15-foot two-conductor shielded cable with Switchcraft TA3F and A3M connectors is supplied. Net weight is 11.5 ounces (326 grams), and the low profile plus black finish makes the mic nearly invisible in use. The PCC-160W is the same microphone in off-white, intended to blend with church altars and other light-colored surroundings. Safe operating temperature is - 10° to +50° C.
Two operating details matter. First, if you unbalance the output using a phantom supply without an isolation transformer, use pin 2 as hot and pin 1 as ground. Crown explicitly warns against shorting pin 3 to pin 1, which will distort the PCC circuit. With a transformer-isolated supply like the PH-1A, shorting pin 3 to pin 1 is fine and yields 6 dB more sensitivity. Second, if the housing is ever opened, the porous foam liner goes toward the front of the microphone and the dense liner toward the rear. Reverse them and both frequency response and polar pattern degrade.
Crown guaranteed the PCC-160 against malfunction for three years from the original purchase date. Factory service ran through Crown Factory Service in Elkhart, Indiana, with a required Service Return Authorization. The manual carries a 2008 copyright, so the same microphone was still being documented decades after those 1985 magazine pages.
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