What's the best way to extend a 3.5mm shotgun mic?

Question

I'm looking to buy the Aputure V-Mic D1 which is a Shotgun mic for DSLRs, so it terminates with a 3.5 mm connector (my camera has a 3.5 mm jack). I'd like to extend this so I can mount it on a boom. I'm planning on getting a Monoprice 3.5 mm extension cable. How long can the extension run for before the quality of the sound gets audibly degraded?

I was thinking I should get a 50 ft cable, but is that too long (in terms of degrading sound quality)? Would it make sense to have two 25 ft cables and plug them into each other only when I need 50 ft (and using just a single 25 ft cable when I don't need all 50 ft)? Or is plugging an extension into an extension a really bad idea?

Answer 1

The output from the microphone you are looking at is powered, so it should hold up relatively well over short distances, but you are still going to pick up some noise. If you can get some shielded cable, it should probably be sufficient for your purposes. Running a balanced cable and converting it to unbalanced closer to the camera would still be preferable, but not nearly as cheap.

As long as you have good solid connections, plugging one cable in to another isn't nearly as much problem as run length, but do also keep in mind that 3.5mm cables are non-locking and can be pulled apart easily, so you'll need to tape them together for live usage. I would personally probably go with the shorter options. I'd even say get a 10 ft, a 15 ft and a 25 ft, that way you can use the shortest available combination.