Re: Figure 8 mics

["Walter Knapp" waltknapp]

Posted by: "Mike Feldman"

> Rob mentions a bunch of dual-diaphragm designs; I would think
> that the acoustic simplicity of a single ribbon would generate
> better HF results than a dual diaphragm.

<snip>

> Better detection of a single open diaphragm is the
> grail.  David Josephson did contribute to a discussion years back
> of optical sensing like the Phone-Or mic.  And Sennheiser picked
> up the rights to that design but I've heard of no commercial product,
> so cost reduction or performance must be a severe roadblock.

Note that current Sennheiser MKH are all single diaphragm including the
MKH-30. Not a ribbon, but otherwise what you are asking for.

I'd like to see Sennheiser come up with a MKH-30 that was a little lower
self noise and higher sensitivity. Though the MKH-80 & MKH-800 do fit
this bill and do have figure 8 as one of their patterns.

The MKH-20 through MKH-50 all have fairly matched sensitivity and noise.
Then the MKH-60 through MKH-800 have much higher sensitivity and even
lower noise. Kind of like two generations of design. I think about how a
MKH-20 with the specs of a MKH-80 would make the SASS a even better
nature recording setup.

Walt