Mic measurement comments, Condensers.
Others have said it before, but now I understand better why some mics are so bloody expensive and why others are not. For example, the Sennheiser MKH800 mics are in the neighborhood of $3000 each. So what do you get for that kinda money? For one thing, consistency. The MKH800 Twin mics are not factory matched, nor are they consecutive serial numbers (10016 and 10138), but any one of the four capsules (front and back on each mic) are within +- 1dB of any other capsule from 20 to 20kHz, and within +- 0.5 dB from 70 to 20kHz. These kinds of differences could easily be the result of my measurement errors rather than the mic themselves, so for all intents and purposes these mics are perfectly matched. The MKH800 also matches closely to either of the MKH800 Twin mics. The Milab DC-196 mics are a close match. (My frequency response measurement of the Milab DC-196 mics agrees with the measurements supplied by the factory, so that give me assurance than my measurement results are reasonably accurate.) The upper and lower capsules of the Beyerdynamic MC742 are almost identical. Even the 4 Milab LSR2000s (which are used vocal performance mics) are very close to each other.
With the Chinese mics it’s a different story. For example, out of the 4 MXL603S mics, two of them are close enough to each other that I would consider using them as a stereo pair. The Busman SDC mics are well matched, however.
On an absolute basis the European mics again have an advantage. Their responses are smoother and more extended than any of the Chinese mics I measured. I’d even have no problems recording with the Milab LSR2000, which as I said, is a vocal performance mic.
As for the Chinese mics, the MXL991 was particularly bad. No low end, a peak at 4 kHz, a dip at 6 kHz, and another peak at 9 kHz. However, my sample size was just one, so maybe I got a bad mic. Good thing it was free.
I would recommend the Michael Joly mod that he does to the MXL603S, MXL991 and other similar Chinese SDCs. His mod lowers the 5 kHz bump these mics almost always have, and turns a barely useable mic into something pretty good. His mod does not change the low end response, which varies quite a bit for these Chinese SDCs, so if you’re going to spend the money to get mic modded, pick one with a good low end.
I tested the Behringer ECM8000 measurement mics just to make sure they close enough to flat to be considered a measurement mic. I’m happy to say that they both measured flat enough to be useable as a measurement mic. One was better than the other, but both were acceptable. I’d never use them for recording since they are too noisy, but not bad for $50.
Next I’ll comment on the ribbons and the dynamics, but it might be a while before I get it posted.
Topic: Some mic measurements, now with graphs (Read 16561 times)