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What is a MKH 416t-f?


Jeremy Childers

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The 416T-F is a T-powered 416 that has a flat response instead of the curved response (high-mid freq boost, low freq roll-off) of the regular 415 and 416. The "F" version is rare because the market did not embrace it, and Sennheiser stopped making it soon after they started. As I recall, the F version can be reversed to have the 416's normal curve.

The reason the 416 has the shaped response that it has is not an accident or a mistake, but intentional for the application for which it was designed (pointing at an actor from an overhead angle at a distance on a boom pole). A very directional mic like the 416 is made to get a distant voice to sound closer than it actually is. When people used the 416F (whether 12T or 48ph) on the end of a pole 4 feet away from an actor, except for the reduced off-axis noise and increased low freq ambience (see below), they weren't happy that it sounded like it was 4 feet away. Also, since the interference tube design of shotgun mics like the 416 rejects the high and mid freqs much more than the low freqs (below 150Hz it is nearly an omni mic), the 416F makes the low freq ambience seem louder than it actually is. This is one advantage of the fixed low freq roll-off of the 416.

Glen Trew

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More on the F variant: Sennheiser had a lot of requests for a model to record music at a distance, as well as sport's sounds. It is not typically used for production sound dialog recording.That target market did not embrace it, though folks who have them like them for special purposes where the standard response curve is not appropriate.

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On 11/22/2011 at 12:54 AM, Glen Trew said:

The 416T-F is a T-powered 416 that has a flat response instead of the curved response (high-mid freq boost, low freq roll-off) of the regular 415 and 416. The "F" version is rare because the market did not embrace it, and Sennheiser stopped making it soon after they started. As I recall, the F version can be reversed to have the 416's normal curve.

 

The reason the 416 has the shaped response that it has is not an accident or a mistake, but intentional for the application for which it was designed (pointing at an actor from an overhead angle at a distance on a boom pole). A very directional mic like the 416 is made to get a distant voice to sound closer than it actually is. When people used the 416F (whether 12T or 48ph) on the end of a pole 4 feet away from an actor, except for the reduced off-axis noise and increased low freq ambience (see below), they weren't happy that it sounded like it was 4 feet away. Also, since the interference tube design of shotgun mics like the 416 rejects the high and mid freqs much more than the low freqs (below 150Hz it is nearly an omni mic), the 416F makes the low freq ambience seem louder than it actually is. This is one advantage of the fixed low freq roll-off of the 416.

 

Glen Trew

So where does one get it modded to the regular curve and P48 conversion?

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I have a matched pair of MKH 416T-F microphones. When I worked in sound recording, I used them for location sound and music recording. There were never any complaints about the quality of the sound, film dialog, sound effects, music, etc., recorded with them.   

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