Topic: Sennheiser MKH435T: opinions?

[notlance]

I'm thinking of buying a Sennheiser MKH435T for use as a spot mic.  I understand about the whole T power thing and I'll have to get a T to phantom adaptor.  My question: is the MKH435T any good or is its design past its prime?  How does it sound?  Is it quiet?  My main pair are a couple of MKH800 Twins, so how well would the 435 mix with those?  Can it be repaired or are parts no longer available?  If it's in good shape, how much would you pay for one?  Thanks for any help you can give me.

[lino]

The 435 is a CARDIOID high class yet very underestimated microphone now days, in fact that counts for all the older mkh series microphones.
It is very quite, very low 20ohm impedance and high gain output + that the T version you are talking about is earth free powered.
It is a very smoooth sounding mic , back at the time this was the super linear and the 405/406 were the super fat ones.
Service is not a problem, if something fails in these mics that will be the high-freq. crystal or the tantal caps but these parts are to be found everywhere.

[ghellquist]

Hmm. Just a short question. I believe the 435 was a short shotgun? The corresponding cardioid was the 406 while the 405 was hypercardioid?

I have a pair of the 406P48. Very quiet and nicely sounding mics. With a sloping bass cutoff starting at about 80Hz which should make them perfect for concert taping. Alas, I do mostly classical music so these do a lot of work as spot mics.

My belief, not really tested, is that using a shotgun a spot, even if short, can be a bit problematic. The reason being that the shotguns have a lot of lobes of sensitivity off-axis and these lobes do not sound very good. As a spot you would probably get a lot of other instruments as well.

// Gunnar

[notlance]

The 435T does appear to be cardioid; it just looks like a short 'gun.  I did find this datasheet:

http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/old_manual.nsf/resources/MKH_435_oNr_oDatum_Sp2.pdf/$File/MKH_435_oNr_oDatum_Sp2.pdf

From the look of the polar pattern, it might even be considered a wide card.

Since I also do mostly "classical" taping, the 435 should work well as a spot mic, should it not?

[notlance]

And here is the datasheet for the 406P48:

http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/old_manual.nsf/resources/MKH_406_P_48_oNr_0883_Sp3.pdf/$File/MKH_406_P_48_oNr_0883_Sp3.pdf

[John Willett]

Hmm. Just a short question. I believe the 435 was a short shotgun?

The 435 is definitely cardioid - it only *looks* like a very short gun.

[ghellquist]

Thank you for the info. Learn things all the time.

// Gunnar

[bigcitysound]

If the MKH435 is similar to the MKH406, which I think it is, then it is a very decent cardioid mic! Probably comparable to the MKH40 but with higher self noise.

I own several 406's and really like their sound. Also as far as I know Sennheiser in Old Lyme has parts for these mics and should probably give the RF circuit a "tuning up" anyway if the mic is 70's vintage. I had a 406 up there recently and the turnaround was quite quick and the charges really reasonable.