When Sennheiser came out with their 8000-series mics, some nature recordists
tried the MKH 8020 as a replacement for the tried-and-true MKH 20 omni mic. The
offered improvements are smaller size and extended high frequency response to
60 KHz.
Vicky Powys, for one, tried them and reported noise generation when used in the
field. They were returned to the regional office for repair but that was
ineffective. Based on this report and others (Martyn, I think?) the model got a
bad reputation nature recording community.
I bought four of them a while after, hoping that the fix was in. One of them
developed noises in the field. Sennheiser in Old Lyme reported that there was a
new fix, but the mics had to go back to Germany. The regional offices had not
yet been trained to do the new fix.
My four mics went home to Germany. After four months I got them back. They have
now been out on two overnight recording sessions. The first was at Mariposa
Grove in Yosemite this March, and the second last weekend at El Polin Spring in
the Presidio of San Francisco. At El Polin Spring the humidity was 90% and
everything was soaked with condensation from dusk to dawn. They performed
perfectly.
So I'm declaring the problem solved.
-Dan
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