Posted by: "Rob Danielson"
> Increased clarity is how I'd describe the difference as well. I used
> a 30/40 pair for the front M-S on my 744T surround rig for two years
> and switched to a 80/40 pair a year ago. The 80 seems to have
> extended response under 50Hz and noticeably smoother lower-mid
> response. The most evident upper end noise on my 80 is about a 1/3
> of an octave higher. There's less graininess to notch-out around 8K
> Hz (compared to the MKH-30). In quiet natural locations, the output
> of my MKH-40 (which was bench- tested with the 30 by Sennheiser)
> typically produced 2-3 dB more output than the MKH-30. My MKH 80
> produces 2-3 dB more sound file saturation than the 40. There are
> several solid plusses with the 80. Rob D.
The Sennheiser mic brochure pdf is too big for me to put up, but I
extracted just the MKH portion and have put that pdf up temporarily here:
http://naturerecordist.home.mindspring.com/MKH_Brochure.pdf
Get it now if you want it, can't guarantee how long I can keep it up.
It's just under 900K.
There have been several comments that touched on polar patterns or
frequency response, rather than trying to respond to each, the pdf has
Sennheiser's graphs for these as well as the rest of the mic specs for
the MKH. This info is a start on how they will behave, field experience
is the bigger part.
The 30 and 40 are supposed to have the same sensitivity. I've noticed as
well that when used in M/S the 30 will often have a little lower output.
Not sure but what it may simply be that we are pointing the 40 more
directly at the area of interest. The difference is less when the
soundfield is wide and fairly even. Or that the figure 8 naturally
splits it's sensitivity to two different areas in some way.
It may also be a problem that most mic testing is done at fairly high
sound levels and they don't entirely behave the same recording much
lower levels.
I'm not surprised at the 80 having higher output than the 40, it's
sensitivity rating is much higher. That's my experience too. Even more
evident in a way when you go to a pair of 80's for M/S.
Regardless of which mic when I'm doing M/S I adjust gain on each mic
independently thus focusing on getting a good recording from each mic.
Only later in decoding the M/S do I work on the balance between them.
Walt
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