At 10:53 AM +0200 9/2/05, derek holzer wrote:
>Has anyone here had a chance to demo the Sennheiser MKH 418-s? It's a
>stereo, mid-side hypercardiod/shotgun mike, and I'm wondering how
>favorably it compares to an MKH 30/60 M/S combo.
>
>The benefits I see are that you have one mike instead of two (weight
>reduction), with a built-in M/S encoder so you can go straight to preamp
>or recorder. And it retails in Europe for EUR 1290, whereas the 30/60
>combo will set you back EUR 1288 (MKH 30) + EUR 1379 (MKH 60) for new
>ones, not including clips to connect them and an M/S encoder if you want
>to properly monitor them.
>
>But I wonder why the 418-s is more "budget" and where the corners got cut.
>I see in the spec a 40-20000 Hz frequency response (less range than an MKH
>60?), and it isn't labelled "extremely low self-noise" the way the other
>MKH ones are, so that could be a pinch point.
Yes and Bernie's field tests are consistent with the published specs.
(Odd that Sennheiser paired a Side mic with much higher noise and
lower output. There are times I regret the much smaller difference
between the mkh 30/40.)
If you don't require high humidity performance, there are folks who
are very high on the Schoeps M-S rigs. When we compared Greg's
MK-8/MK-21 to my MKH-30/40 I heard some differences that made me
appreciate why.
>
>Feedback on this one? I could have a chance to buy an MKH 60 for about
>half retail, which makes me a bit more torn between the two options! ;-)
Seems like you' could be contemplating a signficant investment. To
my ears, the trade-off between the "up-front" shot-gun sound in the
middle is less spatial definition compared to using a cardioid or an
omni. When I use an mkh-60 as a Mid, I can't get an even spread of
the high frequencies across the stereo field. The Mid mic often
contributes more character to a final MS mix because the Side figure
8 capsule usually has less low Hz response and its mixed at a lower
level. If you've preferred the character of omni-directional mics in
the past, don't hesitate to try an omni as a Mid too. Rob D.
>derek
>
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