Hi Chris,
I've just upgraded from a AT897 to ME66/K6 but didn't manage to find
the bargain you picked yours up for!!
I have to concur that the levels on the AT897 are very low for nature
recording. In attempts to work around the low levels I built myself a
phanton power box based on the rolls PB224 schematic and that
improved the situation quite a bit - the 12% increase in senstitivity
vs internal battery made a real difference. I've also experimented
with a home build mic preamp/phantom supply which again made an
improvement running into a MZ-RH1. The colour of the self-noise
seemed to shift to a more even and somewhat darker tone with the
external pre, which I put down in part to the flat response of the
the external pre and RH1line in vs the rolled off LF response of RH1
mic in. In the end I came to the conclusion that the 17dB self-noise
and 10mV/Pa sensitivity was too much of an obstacle.
I haven't had much opportunity to use the ME66/K6 but even battery
powered and running into the RH1 mic pre it's a vast improvement over
the AT897. I know there have been suggestions in the archives that
the ME66 has a self noise of 16dB but that certainly doesn't tally
with the the level of background hiss I'm hearing compared to the
AT897 which has a claimed self-noise of 17dB. I've fortunately sold
the AT897 so can't do any side by side recordings to illustrate.
The problem with the DV based reviews is that their selection
criteria are substantially different to what is valued by the nature
recordist community. There seems to be substantial weight given to
handling room reverberations and voice reproduction, while self noise
is a probably a tertiary consideration at best. I know that I was
swayed by the positive reviews of the Rode NTGs and AT897, and the
generally negative remarks about the ME66/K6 on the DV forums but
with hindsight I can see where they are coming from, and how that
differs from the NR perspective. Looking from the NR perspective the
NTG's and AT897 definitely don't represent "shotgun" bargains, they
might be cheap(er) but their self noise levels compromise their utility.
cheers
Paul
On 06/07/2007, at 8:45 AM, no_mas_films wrote:
> Hello all! Ok here's the deal; I own a AT897 shotgun mic which I have
> used and found to have a really low output level...so I read a glowing
> review of these five low cost shotguns (
> http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=42674&highlight=at897 )
> where I gleaned that the Rode NTG-2 is the superior mic so I bought
> one
> on eBay for $195.00 US. Not long after I found a ME66 / K6 combo on
> eBay with a rycote shockmount and a rycote dead cat windscreen for
> $50.00 US plus $7.95 shipping. I snatched it up thinking that I can
> get
> 6 times that figure on ebay and it will help pay for the Fostex CF
> recorder I wanted. Just for grins I have done a side by side test of
> these three and low and behold, the ME66 has won me over! It's output
> is so high compared to the other two it's scary, and although it's a
> bit heavy on the low end and seems to lack alittle on the highs, I
> believe it will be the superior mic for recording nature. I would love
> to hear from the more experienced posters on this group about their
> experiences with these three! Thanks, Chris
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