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Gear / Technical Help => Microphones & Setup => Topic started by: CQBert on February 18, 2009, 12:24:35 AM
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I am looking for some help on DPA 4011-TL v. 4021....
Also - DPA makes a Tube Pre-Amp? can that be powered in the field? I know the 4011-TL's can be ordered in 130V?
I am curious as to any electronics differences, sound etc...
Thanks ! !
CQBert
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Curious? Why would you need a 130V powered mic?
My vote would go with the 4021/4022/4023. Small, unobtrusive and easily configurable. 4011 sounds great but it's huge, and you have to pack a bundle of cables. From what I've heard they sound very similar. I would love to pick up a pair of 4021's.
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Some random notes. I have run the 4003 mics a while (these use the 130V system) but have sold them on to an organ recordings specialist (where they do make a difference and really shine).
The 4011-TL and the 4021 are basically the same mic. Same capsule and similar electronics.
The original 4011 did have a transformer that changed the sound a bit, you might argue if better or worse.
The 130V system used in 4003, 4004 and 4012 has mostly lost its place as the newer TL-s are so close. There still is a difference but you really have to have a top-notch chain to have any benefit from it (really good musicians, really good acoustics, really good preamp, really good AD). And it cannot as far as I know be easily field powered. There is the DPA HMA5000, the Millenium HV-3D can be had with a 130V option, a few other preamps, but I believe they all run on wall power.
And no, DPA does not make any preamps **) . They do make a tube head-amp, the part of the microphone that contains electronics. The head amp allows the signal from the mic membrane that cannot be transferred more than inches to be transferred over mic cables up to may 1000 feet. The tube head-amp is only available for the 4041 capsule as far as I know, and requires the HMA5000 for powering, and again not easily field powered. The 4041 is a lowely microphone, but a bit of a specialist tool, not what you would see used by a typical concert taper.
// Gunnar
**) added later: tube preamps it should say.
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I believe the 130 volts mics have a higher dB limit, also. I know Sikkema uses them for his recordings of organs and likes them. And I agree that for the rest of us it is probably overkill.
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The 4011 TL's have a max spl 158 db.The 402x series are 145 db.