Hi all
Hope this isn't too long winded.
A while back there was a short discussion on Shure WL 183 v 93. Recently
I tried testing 2 of each 183 and 93 using PIP ( plug in power). The
mics were suspended about 1.5m high in the far room,between 5:00 and
6:30 in the morning but this time of morning to cat likes to play. The
tests were done using a Sony MZ- RH10 with PMC ( uncompressed format).
Tracks down loaded to the PC by Sonic Stage. The only editing done was
deleting unwanted sections and converted to MP3 for quicker downloading
on the Internet. It was felt those with more experience and powerful
programs can play as they wish. The best mic of each model was posted
in the file section of the nature recordist page. The order of the
samples is 183 first followed by the 93.
There were 3 tests done.
a); silent room
The recorder was set at 30 ( the max. setting) and left for
approximately 10 min.
b); clock test
the mic was place 2m from the clock. The recorder set at 30.
c) Playback test
Trying to get a fell how they may handle field conditions. To keep
things constant for direct comparisons, 2 recent recent tracks of a
Purple-caped Honeyeater and Shy Hylacola ( played in that order and
found in the SW of Australia) were played through the computer speakers
using a 2nd minidisk. Being unbalanced mics, stereo and the computer can
give some funny noises in the recordings. The recorder was set at 20 (
found mic noise is noticeable above this) and the volume of the speakers
were set so the was a recording about 3 to 4 dB for the 183 and the same
setting used for all mics. The results were disappointing and they were
not included plus it would have made the file too large (1.05MB)
d); voltage test
a volt meter was used to see how much volts were going through to the
mic when the recorder was set at recording mode.
Results
The difference between the 183's were about 3 to 3.5dB. This was
pleasing as there was 6 or more dB difference before I found that one of
the capsules wasn't screwed on properly. There was a greater range for
the 93 with 1.6 dB for the loader recordings but 7 to 12dB for the soft
recordings. I'm seriously thinking of retesting the two 93's.
The impression I got was both of the better mics of both were very
close, with the 183 being slightly more sensitive by 1 to 2 db and with
less mic noise. I feel a retest of both 93's maybe needed to check the
variability by loud and soft sounds. For tonal differences I will leave
that to those with better ears.
The readings from the volt meter was
183 - 3.2 to 3.4v
93- 0.4 to 0.6v
Interesting to hear peoples thoughts on how that may have influenced the
results.
David
Ps just listened to file that I just posted to file page and there are a
lot of artificial sounds on it. How do we rectify this?
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