"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
. ..
"Keith G" wrote in message
"Keith G" wrote in message
news
No-one is more aware of the old 'you get what you pay
for adage' (or the various issues with cheep Chinky
stuff) than I am, but my curiosity/interest in a valve
microphone has had me punting a relatively paltry £132
(inc. postage) on this little lot:
The noise floor of the clari01 recording is dominated by 700 Hz and
its harmonics - perhaps a nearby PC cooling fan? Second major source
of noise is that of a person inhaling.
In terms of evaluating mics, I can't think of anything much worse than
a solo clairinet. Limited frequency range, limited dynamic range. Even
a set of keys jangling would give more information about response over
the critical upper half of the audio spectrum.
Who's *evaluating*? - Those clips were merely a quick and dirty
*demonstration* of summat that was pretty obvious....
Sorry to say, it's looking like *stinker* atm:
What the MP3 is a recording of, is not self-evident.
http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/show/Noisy%20Mic.mp3
http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/show/SelfNoise.wmv
If the left channel is the preamp, terminated with a low-value
resistor, then the right channel may not be all that bad.
The left channel is switched off....
If the left channel is the ribbon mic, set up for equal acoustical
sensitivity, then the right channel is horrid.
The left channel is switched off....
The right channel has a nearly theoretical-looking -40 dB/decade
slope, and seems to be electronic in nature. Get rid of the tube!
I can only imagine what would happen if Keith tried one of the better
mics I routinely use - a Rode NT-1 or NT-5, for example. Of course
they are both infected with that deadly disease - "sand state"
electonics.
Always difficult to tell with Arny if he's responding to my posts for a
specific response from me or *broadcasting* to the group and simply
wants a round of applause?? (I'd cast Raymond Massey in the role,
costumed like a Southern carpetbagger in a wide-brimmed black hat and
silk waistcoat... :-)
Anyway 'Keith' already has 8 SS mics (3 pairs, two singles - variously
from Russia, China and the US) and wanted to try a 'tube'. Price was the
key factor (been getting away with it so far) and the 'makes' are all
Greek to me - if your advice about the Studio Projects 'make' had
arrived earlier (before I had bought the mic I did), I would have
probably followed it...
It would be good if some people would let a modicum of the scientific
method inform their investigations. One such informative scientific
tool is the known reference. Comparing eBay special ribbon to eBay
special cheap tube mulit-pattern mic via a well-known travesty of a
mic preamp (The Tube MP) may be fun, but it is frustrating if one
were to try to actually make sense of the proceedings.
Keep yer wig on Arny, the whole thing has been a fun (ie *non
scientific*) exercise - the new arrival got paired with the ribbon
simply because the ribbon was already set up (had been for a couple of
days). The clart got used because Swim volunteered a couple of clips and
its a whole lot easier to drag the clart to the mics than a grand piano.
Up 'til then it had been a series of *testing 1 2 3 4s* and who TF wants
to hear that - the glaring differences between the new mic and even just
the one of my existing mics didn't need much *measuring* or
*labwork*....
Arny, if your expectations of my messing about are going to be so
(unnecessarily) high, I would suggest you ignore them (if there are any
more)....
Keith G = Stinker
Linear Mode
