I'm using DPA 4060 mics from core-sound. i'll have three main uses: recording nature sounds like bird calls, urban activities like the sounds of a restaurant in Mexico and recording loud concerts.
That's potentially a very large range of dynamics. Most probematic is probably the bird calls and very low level nature recordings.
If you're doing nature recording, your primary concern is going to be having a very, very quiet preamp.
..and quiet mics. The noise floor of the preamp becomes more important with less sensitive mics, and less so with higher sensitivity mics. The more sensitive the mics, the less gain required from the preamp, and the less noise it contributes. As long as the preamp is quieter than the mic's self noise by a margin, it will not contribute to the resulting noise in the recording.
While I love my V3, absolutely nothing is better with the 4060s than the DPA MMA6000.
This is true in that the DPA makes that preamp specifically for their miniature mics, and in my experience it works very, very well. Yet despite it's quality build, solid dependebility and very good performance and match to the mics, the MMA6000 is not the absolute quietest preamp around if that is most important. As an example, and simply because I checked myself by ear if not by measurement, the Church CA-UGLY has a lower noise floor (as should the 9100 with nearly identical circuit) although it offers less gain and other nice features. Yet in the end, the noise difference and reduced gain range is not significant for my uses due to the high sensitivity of the 4060. In the end, the reason I use the CA-UGLY or Niant PFAs with 4060s most often is simply convenience and small size.
Regardless of preamp, if high gain nature recording and lowest noise possible is important, consider that although the 4060 has a lower self-noise than most other miniature mics, its self-noise isn't low enough for many serious nature recordists. It's no problem at all for urban sound capture, music, or the less serious occasional nature recording I do with them where ambient noise floor is almost always higher than the mic self noise, but they aren't the 'go-to' mic of choice for nature recording with something like a Nagra. However they are a great 'one-size fits all' compromise that will work well for the overall range of things you want to record. Using a decently quiet preamp with clean gain (like the DPA MMA6000, Church or Niant preamps) may be all you really need in combination with the R-09HR you have now. I'd suggest trying an external preamp with your existing recorder first.
Topic: Nagra SD Recorder (Read 8475 times)