Wednesday, October 21, 2026

How to connect a Sennheiser MD421HN to iPhone for recording with Garageband, or camera etc.

 At your risk.


The beautiful microphone can be 24in away with no need to set the bass correcting switch for proximity effect. Recording outdoors with windshield will avoid close wall reflections.


The MD421HN already has an internal step up transformer, so no need to add an external.


So the impedance is high, the voltage high and we are ready to connect to the gate of a JFET.


For example the Pleiades K117 220R 5M5 preamplifier can be used. The JFET is a K117, a 220ohm resistor is used connected between the source terminal of the JFET and ground, and a 5.5Megohm between gate and ground. Then the drain terminal is connected to the mic input of the mobile device iPad or iPhone. For a modern device an apple USB C to 3.5mm adaptor is used, See previous posts. Headphones may need to be connected so that the mic is recognized too.


The MD412HN high Z signal is connected to the gate of the JFET and the whole Pleiades preamplifier can be assembled inside the mini Tuchel connector as it is only a JFET and 2 small resistors.


It sounds very nice with no hiss or noise.







 

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