Topic: Experience and Advice for Sound Professionals SP-EHB-2

[Dent7777]

Hi all,

First post on the forums, not finding much on this specific mic through search so I thought I'd make a post asking about it.
I'm upgrading from an extremely cheap lapel lavalier mic to my first hobbyist level mic, the Sound Professionals SP-EHB-2 Low Noise Ear-mounted Binaural microphones. I'll be running them with the SP-SPSB-4 Micro-mini stereo microphone plug-in power supply with mini 12vdc battery, with windscreens, and either going directly into my phone's aux port from there, or using a 3.5mm aux to usb-c dongle, depending on how my comparison testing goes.

Does anyone have any experience with this mic, any advice or tips to give?

I'm going to be recording a range of music from lighter alt country to heavier classic, punk, and psychedelic rock. I'm trying to put together a bootleg archive for acts associated with the genre-hopping Canadian Band Daniel Romano's Outfit, see here: https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Daniel+Romano%27s+Outfit%22.

[Dent7777]

Shoutout to @kylieshotpants and @prepschoolalumniblues , who have posted about their SP-EHB-2's here.

[TheJez]

Welcome to the forum, good you asked about this!
I have no experience with these, but when reading the specs, even the standard sensitivity option seems rather sensitive and it can't handle very loud sound pressure (max SPL 120dB). Hence with punk, rock and other loud stuff there seem to be a reasonable risk of overloading the analog input stage of your recorder (which type you didn't mention b.t.w. but seems relevant here) and/or the mics themselves, even with the 12V battery box...
So think carefully and be well-advised! You may ask Sound Professionals too for their advise.

[Dent7777]

Thanks for the response TheJez! Right now my stack is Sound Professionals SP-EHB-2 -> mini 12vdc battery -> USB-C Dongle -> USB Audio Recorder Pro -> Samsung XCover6 Pro. I've got two USB-C dongles, and I haven't figured out which one is better yet. The Sound Professionals sp-sapm-1 is showing up as stereo 16bit, 48kHz on the app, while the Sabrent AU-UCMA is showing up as mono 24bit, 96kHz. I would say I care more about the quality of the audio than whether it has two channels, so I'm leaning towards the Sabrent option, but I'm super inexperienced and am open to learning.

[goodcooker]

Thanks for the response TheJez! Right now my stack is Sound Professionals SP-EHB-2 -> mini 12vdc battery -> USB-C Dongle -> USB Audio Recorder Pro -> Samsung XCover6 Pro. I've got two USB-C dongles, and I haven't figured out which one is better yet. The Sound Professionals sp-sapm-1 is showing up as stereo 16bit, 48kHz on the app, while the Sabrent AU-UCMA is showing up as mono 24bit, 96kHz. I would say I care more about the quality of the audio than whether it has two channels, so I'm leaning towards the Sabrent option, but I'm super inexperienced and am open to learning.

Don't record in mono. Even if the other option is a lower bit or sample rate you want to record in stereo - especially if you are using binaural mics. Think about how it would sound if you only had one ear...

[Dent7777]

@goodcooker

I assumed that the mono being output would be an even mix of the two mic sources, and caring about sound quality over the left/right binaural experience, 24bits would be preferable.

I'm very new so I may be making some bad assumptions.

[robgronotte]

I'm not really a fan of binaural mics, but the specific thing they are made for is to give a stereo listening experience.  Binaural actually means "having to do with two ears".

[Gutbucket]

Thanks for the response TheJez! Right now my stack is Sound Professionals SP-EHB-2 -> mini 12vdc battery -> USB-C Dongle -> USB Audio Recorder Pro -> Samsung XCover6 Pro. I've got two USB-C dongles, and I haven't figured out which one is better yet. The Sound Professionals sp-sapm-1 is showing up as stereo 16bit, 48kHz on the app, while the Sabrent AU-UCMA is showing up as mono 24bit, 96kHz. I would say I care more about the quality of the audio than whether it has two channels, so I'm leaning towards the Sabrent option, but I'm super inexperienced and am open to learning.

Don't record in mono. Even if the other option is a lower bit or sample rate you want to record in stereo - especially if you are using binaural mics. Think about how it would sound if you only had one ear...

It's doubtful you'll hear any difference between recordings made at 16/48 verses 24/96 with that rig.  However you will most definitely hear a big difference between mono and stereo recordings made with it.

A 24/96 file isn't higher quality than 16/48.  It is capable of a lower noise floor and of storing higher frequencies that are well above the range of human hearing.  The rest of the recording chain may or may not be able to take partial advantage of those things, but even if so, if set properly a concert recording made at 16/48 is going to sound the same.  It is possible there may be audible differences that arise from differences in the dongles other than recording rate.  That's not especially likely but possible.  In contrast, a stereo recording will be immediately recognizable as sounding better [different] than mono upon comparison of the two. [edit to dial that back a bit-  "better" is a subjective judgement, yet one most listeners agree with.  I've no qualms saying that stereo recordings of live music are far more compelling for me.]

Also, stereo 16/48 requires 1/3 less storage space than 24/96 mono:
 16/48 stereo consumes ~660MB per hour.
 24/96 mono consumes ~990MB per hour.

[Billy Mumphrey]

yes, IMO stereo 16/48 should be significantly preferred over mono 24/96, ESPECIALLY with binaural mics.

[Dent7777]

Thank you folks so much for the great info for a noob!