EmRR

I have always been curious about the practical differences between the 406 and the 435. The patterns don't look terribly different in the manuals and they are both called cardioids. I have one of each, but haven't really evaluated them for relative rejection. They sound very similar on-axis.

Yeah that's about as big a draw as exists in a phantom powered mic.

Interesting!

Concerning the F8n, I ran mine in parallel on a webcast next to a Yamaha QL1 to check the live mixing and auto mix capabilities, and felt that in a pinch I'd have no problem doing the job entirely from the F8n. It proved more capable and easy to navigate than I'd have guessed. It's nice that it can be used in interface mode if it's easy to carry a laptop for capture and immediate editing, or just on it's own if that makes more sense. I'm sure there are competing products with similar capabilities, none I've driven myself.

Have a look at my Zoom F8n sync experiments in another post here. I had a DR-701D for awhile, and an experiment I was never able to try was syncing a pair of them via HDMI. Documentation is scant, but it suggests you might get a word clock regen via that method, but maybe not to any outside world. Note I'm more of a recording studio guy who has occasionally uses LTC, rather than someone who lives in that world daily.

In the world of music recording there is a common opinion that the earlier 451 models sound great, with later ones not well regarded. I believe there is a later reissue 451 also. I'm not clear on all the variants.

Haven't tried Tapatalk, haven't felt the need, this site works fine on my mobile.

I expect 32 bit to be useful at low levels, not really for high level gain setting. An F8n line input set to -10 gain will still clip at about -5.5dBFS with a line source, so the input stage is still the overload point rather than the converter. Running F8n on rock band instrument recordings, anything like an MKH40 or KM140 gain stages correctly set on line input at 0dB gain setting.

Cool! I'm assuming that is a powered electret mic capsule, so the switch is connecting and disconnecting power from the MixPre-10t, and there's not a simple way to get power to the mic AND disconnect audio. You could change to a dynamic element. You could battery power the existing within the box, isolate the audio line to the MixPre-10t with a series capacitor, and have the on/off switch after the capacitor on the way to the MixPre-10t.

Ah, interesting. Thanks.

This is interesting to see. I have one pair of 4060 that got 18ish years ago, and they are still perfectly pliable. I did send them in to have microdot connectors put on and the length extended in the last decade, as they were raw wire ends about a foot long when I got them. DPA repair here in the US told me the cable was non-original and slimmer than anything DPA ever used, and wanted to know who had replaced it. That thing I can't see is how anyone would have replaced the cable all the way into the capsule casing, as it looks snug and it's hard to imagine anything fatter fitting. I've wondered if units that old did use a slimmer cable and the tech simply doesn't know about it.

Very good point. I was able to make my initial pair out of a lot of more than 20 I went through, listening and comparing.

I agree with this. They have a very extended wide open subsonic response that is not protected appropriately. If you hold one in your hand while listening with headphones you can hear the blood flowing in your fingers, and the subtle vibrations of your grip. I’ve experienced air handlers 8 feet away cause gross distortion, from air motion you could hardly detect. The Oktava HPF adapter increases noise substantially, and is not a great solution. I have 4 of these preamps myself along with a selection of capsules, and I’d really only trust them under controlled studio conditions if naked, or with wind protection on a stationary stand, definitely not on my list for booming.

I know most people have abandoned them, but I think Sennheiser MKH 406's and 435's still sound pretty good. I've picked them over my Neumann KM140's at times and in an A/B listen against an Oktava MK-012 they seem to have a more dimensional quality, with the Oktava sounding more 2D. Occasionally you find a 48V version, but most are T power, the T power converter can be had for about $40. They seem to sell in the $200-250 range pretty frequently. There are some service issues to research, and I think Sennheiser will still align them.

I have run one experimental pass. F8n chasing time code from a MOTU 16A, and set for 'external audio clock sync'. Dual mono fed to the 16A and the F8n. This works pretty well. I recorded an hour and ten minutes at 88.2kHz using 30ND LTC, set for ‘External Auto Record’ with ‘External Audio Clock Sync’ on. The F8n started recording when I hit record in the DAW. I found initial offset appeared to be low, in the order of a few samples, much better than all other sync attempts. After correcting the initial offset on the imported file in the DAW, by the end of the recording the offset appeared to be 1.6mS, fine for any mono source, probably fine across a typical multitrack recording, but fails the dual mono remix to mono test with the usual phasing artifacts in mono, or side to side shift with files hard panned opposite. Phase scope looks very weird, with non-linearities all the way down into low frequencies. Now if this was only available in interface multitrack mode….. Other tests: F8n sending LTC to the MOTU 16A, significant latency difference and drift within minutes. The whole system had been warmed up several hours. The imported WAV file from the F8n did drop into the correct initial time spot. Free sync, no connection between devices, pretty much the same as F8n sending LTC after manual lining up of initial waveform. Aggregate device with drift correction checked, 2nd test, I found a moment where there was an instantaneous shift in phase linearity, so I wouldn't trust an initial correction to maintain for any amount of time. This happened about 6 minutes into the experiment, then timing maintained for the next 14 minutes. Aggregate device without drift correction checked, significant latency offset and timing drift within minutes.

Unit in hand, have experimented a little. I can say it works in aggregate device mode for a short run, can't yet speak to a long run yet. I only had time to check it with 'drift correction' checked on the Zoom under AudioMIDI with it as secondary slave device, MOTU device as master clock, no time code connection, which leads to: a response from Zoom customer support which said: I hadn't run an aggregate device in several operating systems, and didn't recall the 'drift correction' checkbox, which is apparently a renamed 'resample' option. I had fed a mono source into each device and recorded for a few minutes. When I look at the waveforms, there's a latency offset difference that is not corrected on the way in, and once aligned visually to waveform peaks, a phase torch display shows the extreme top frequencies waving back and forth a bit which I believe shows evidence of resampling, as implied by the checkbox. The two files sound correctly mono with no apparent phasing artifacts when remixed together in mono. Not wild about the idea of resampling, but then the Mac is doing it in the background all the time and it's never obvious/apparent. I sent a response suggesting it would be useful in a future update to have time code access in interface mode and/or a word clock option. I don't really know what hurdles exist on that front. I'll report in more detail about varied test conditions as I can. Aggregate Drift Correction.mov

Thanks. I've seen mentioned several places that MOTU and Zoom both have proprietary methods to derive/extract clock from time code, so I'm hopeful. It won't be a deal breaker if it's a fail.

Old post, but I'm wondering the same thing. I've got an F8n on the way so I'll know soon enough and will file a report. I'll be checking to see if it integrates with a MOTU AVB unit as an aggregate device under macOS when configured for multitrack interface mode with a DAW, and I'm assuming it'll need EXT AUDIO CLOCK SYNC along with LTC feed from the MOTU system. It'd be a real bonus for my usage list if that works. I did find one music user who is syncing a pair of F8's for concert remotes, reports no problems, but I don't think he's syncing to video. He's not tried running as an aggregate interface.