Re: comparing mic specifications...

["Ed Anson" ed_anson]

I'd say it depends on what you are recording. If you are recording a
relatively loud sound, higher sensitivity trumps noise up to a point.
But if you are recording a quiet ambience that is relatively near the
self noise level of the mic, then a quieter mic would be preferred.


On Jul 4, 2006, at 7:22 PM, cfmspencer wrote:
> in comparing the likely usefulness of mics for
> quiet ambient nature recordings, I've been
> dividing the sensitivity spec figure by the
> noise spec figure and ranking mics relatively
> based on the result.
>
> by this method, a Sanken mic with 20db noise
> and 50mV output would rank higher than a Sennheiser
> with only 12 db noise and 25mV.
>
> does this seem a reasonable way to compare, or is
> lower noise ultimately more important than higher
> output?