Lav with lowest self-noise?

[Petros Kolyvas]

I spent 2 days on this as it was!

I found it really refreshing to see such a well put-together comparison. More than enough to give people a great idea of where they might like to start – and a great display of your own technical prowess!

Most of these types of overviews just leave me confused and perplexed.

[BVS]

Thanks Chad for your review....

For those who haven't seen a previous link about lav mics and the comparisons between them,including most of the well known brands check here.....

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/lavs_brockett.html

Cheers,

BVS

[Chadfish]

Yes I've seen that comparison you linked to BVS! It helped me decide on the COS11D. It's a very complete look at a lot of lavs.

[Alistair Duff]

Thanks Chad, that is a great video and still comes up top when searching for a lav shootout. I really like the sound of the ME-2 and don't really like the rode. You did another video http://vimeo.com/9776528 of just the ME-2 against the COS11 and in that one the COS11 really blows the Sennheiser away.

[ErisHong]

For nature recording and arrays where you're strictly looking at low self-noise and wide frequency extension, it’s worth noting that smaller capsules usually equal higher self-noise. Since you mentioned capsule size isn’t a dealbreaker for your 12" enclosure, you might want to look at slightly larger "inch-worm" style lavs or small omnis rather than sub-miniatures like the B6 or MKE-1.

The DPA 4060 is actually incredibly quiet for its class (around 23 dBA), but if you can accommodate something just a tiny bit larger, the Sennheiser MKE 2 or even Primo EM272 capsules (if you’re open to DIY/custom builds like the Naiant stuff mentioned above) have a significantly lower noise floor and a wider frequency response that handles the low-end and ultra-high nature physics much better.

If you are trying to map out or calibrate the exact delta dB differences and noise floors across different capsules in real-time, feeding them through an RTA or a visualizer tool like this Sound Spectrum Analyzer can be really helpful to see exactly where the noise floor sits across the spectrum before you seal up the array.

Definitely stick with the waterproof caps if you end up choosing the B6s for the outdoor moisture factor, though!

[RadoStefanov]

SELF NOISE DOES NOT MATTER ANYMORE…

[Bouke]

4 hours ago, RadoStefanov said:

SELF NOISE DOES NOT MATTER ANYMORE…

No, with this level the self noise isn't the problem.
Is there a reason for shouting?

 

 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

I'm reasonably certain ErisHong is an AI bot.  That account's posts all follow the pattern of bot responses:  They all necro 5+ year-old threads for no reason other than to post intelligent-sounding but not very meaningful information that doesn't add anything to the discussion, and doesn't have any good reason for resurrecting the thread.  Its response to the Lectro "April Fools" thread (posted in June) is particularly out-of-context, but all of the profile's posts share similar sense of "why are you posting in this thread".

This post in particular has two AI tells:  

4 hours ago, ErisHong said:

The DPA 4060 is actually incredibly quiet for its class (around 23 dBA)

This is not a meaningful way to talk about noise floor without referring to a reference level.  It also happens to be incorrect.   The actual DPA spec for the DPA 4060 is:  

Equivalent noise level, A-weightedTyp. 26 dB(A) re. 20 µPa (max. 28 dB(A))

 

4 hours ago, ErisHong said:

a wider frequency response that handles the low-end and ultra-high nature physics much better.

The phrase "ultra-high nature physics" sounds plausible, but it doesn't mean anything.  It's also not an accurate characterisation of the differences between the 4060 and MKE-2 (per the manufacturers' frequency response graphs).

I could be wrong — it's definitely getting harder to tell with AI — but I don't think I am.  This site is going to drown in AI slop if we don't get a handle on it.

[Bouke]

41 minutes ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

I could be wrong

I think you're right, but I fail to see the 'why' of these posts. It's not typical trolling behaviour (yet, perhaps).

 

 

 

[Izen Ears]

54 minutes ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

I'm reasonably certain ErisHong is an AI bot. 

Thank you, what you say tracks. Dang. Even bothering us here. Something really has to be done about bots. They're like the silent menace that will bring down society before we know it.

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

40 minutes ago, Bouke said:

I think you're right, but I fail to see the 'why' of these posts. It's not typical trolling behaviour (yet, perhaps).

Most likely, they are trying to establish accounts that are accepted as clean for later use / abuse.

 

I flagged this ErisHong, but there's been a number of other new accounts with bot-like patterns as well.  I try to report them privately, but I'm not sure who is moderating these days.

@Izen Ears I agree:  "something has to be done".  The question is what.  I'm happy to take on a more active moderation role if that is helpful.  But I'm not 100% sure how our moderation works here at this point.  JW's death is still relatively fresh, so I hope there will be a re-building of the site's leadership at some point, but I don't really want to push that process.  I'm sure Jeff's family has a lot to handle, and, having been through an estate process myself, it's never fast.

[Bouke]

Just got an error, could this be related?

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