Can You Live Without A Hilton Remote? (CL208 May 2012)
Jeff Garbutt, Western Australia

So you want to throw away the Hilton microphone lead and just use a lead with a 6.5 mm plug at the end? And do away with your dependence on the volume control at your fingertips. Well sorry gang, it's not that simple!

What is so special about the Hilton remote?

The remote actually has an "impedance matching transformer" built in for matching the low impedance signal from professional microphones that we typically use to the high impedance input signal required by a Hilton system. It's complicated as to why but "low impedance microphones" also produce low output signals. So without a transformer you won't get much volume from your microphone.

Plugging your microphone into a standard microphone lead is not practical unless you have an "impedance matching transformer" at one end or the other.

Standard practice for music industry.

If you go to a concert you will notice that the average musicians use "3 Pin connectors" rather than "jack plugs" to plug into their systems. There is a good reason for this. They generally have very long microphone leads that extend from the stage area up to a mixer console at the back of the venue. The mixer is operated by a sound person who can directly hear the sound mix that the audience can hear and therefore can make sure everyone hears the music.

With very long leads can be good aerials for picking up radio interference induced noises and it is better to use low impedance microphone signals. These then have to be matched to the input of the mixer or amplifier. Normal public address systems have both low (via a 3 pin connector) and high (via a 6.5 mm plug) signal inputs. Musician's use the 3 connector leads are plug into the low impedance inputs to avoid induced noise.

How Do Hilton Systems Adapt?

Hilton realized years ago that the average caller does not have the resources to hire a dedicated "mixer person" in a sound booth at the back of the venue. They try to make units that don't need a university degree to operate. They also save space by not having a dual input system in their amplifiers. But this comes at a small cost in that it is necessary to have an "impedance matching transformer" built into their microphone leads.

Their solution was to find a practical use for the space it takes up on the lead. And so they used the space taken up by the transformer to include a "remote volume control".

The Bottom Line?

So you can't throw away the remote volume control, you actually need it to get optimal performance from your microphone.