• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

external mike or not? (1 Viewer)

Peter Ericsson

Well-known member
Today almost went to buy the Sennheiser Mke 600 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=sennheiser+mke+600&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ps

Then it struck me that 'why am I really getting this"? My conclusion is that the mike should be able to pick up sounds that are further away better then my Olympus LS12?
The Olympus is pretty good for birds that are nearby. My question is: Will it considerably improve my recordings of birds from further away?

Happy with any input from anyone....thanks!

Peter
 
Peter,

Yes, with my LS-11 I get much better recordings of a distant sound, with external shotgun microphone.
Read this thread : http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=256166

Here is some examples…what are you paying for, typical numbers?

The MKE600, battery powered, has a sensitivity of 19mv/Pa and a noise level of 16dB. (BH: 330 USD) (17,4 USD/mV )

The ME66/K6, battery powered, has a sensitivity of 50mv/Pa and a noise level of 10dB. (BH: 460 USD) ( 9,2 USD/mV )

The MKH 70, phantom powered, has a sensitivity of 50mv/Pa and a noise level of 5dB (BH: 1750 USD ) Rugged & weatherproof, RF condenser mic.) ( 35 USD/mV) You need some electronic device/box to connect the microphone to LS-12…that price is not included in calculation to get 35 USD/mV…..so it will be even more expensive/mV in the end.

For MKE600 and ME66/K6 you need a special cable to connect to LS-12, cable not that expensive, like 30 USD.

The larger sensitivity (mV/Pa) the better.
The lower noise level the better.

It we only look at the mics listed above:
The ME66/K6 will give you best performance per USD, I think. (ME67/K6 is an alternative)
Those with big wallets will choose a mic like the MKH70 because its low noise level and is weatherproof & rugged.

The sound recorder must be a good performer & compatible to be able to use the mic performance at its best.

I like my LS-11 and my ME66/K6 but there is a lot of other alternatives to choose from today.

Anders
 
Consider why you're recording and how you use your recorder. The internal microphones on my handheld are good enough to record everything my own ears can hear, so for documentation and identification recordings no external microphone is needed. An external microphone would just be one more obstacle preventing me from getting a critical ID recording in a pinch. It is also nice that it the internal microphones are a bit directional, but still wide angle, which easily picks up multiple birds when I never know which one of them is going to make the more interesting or distinctive noises. OTOH, if you're more concerned with "cleaner" recordings and more isolation of distant birds, then you'll want something more directional and sensitive.
 
pre-amp

Thank you Anders for your specific reply. I was not aware of those numbers and judging by the numbers it looks like the 600 has more noise. The advantage is the price and smaller size. In reality do you think there is a noticeable difference between the two mikes?

A friend of mine said I also need to get a pre-amp device. Is this necessary?

Peter
 
Thank you Anders for your specific reply. I was not aware of those numbers and judging by the numbers it looks like the 600 has more noise. The advantage is the price and smaller size. In reality do you think there is a noticeable difference between the two mikes?

A friend of mine said I also need to get a pre-amp device. Is this necessary?

Peter
An ME66 won't need a pre-amp (if the LS12 is similar to the LS10 and 11). No idea about the MKE600. The high output of the ME66 is why people go for that one.
 
Peter,

The MKE600 needs this sennheiser cable to connect to for example an iphone (four pole connector):
KA 600i Article No. 505799

and I guess this sennheiser cable (3 pole connector) to connect to your LS-12.
KA 600 Article No. 505633

The K6 module has an output of 2V phantom. I couldn´t find any similar info concerning KA600 & 600i, but since the KA600i output is made for an iphone i guess the KA600 is intended for use with device like the LS-12, see
http://en-us.sennheiser.com/ka-600

so you don´t need a preamp...only the KA600 cable.

Here is some more info from : http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora...nts/new-sennheiser-mke-600-shotgun-microphone

Because the MKE 600 can be powered by an internal AA battery, it’s possible to connect it to recording devices and cameras that don’t have XLR inputs, such as the 3.5mm microphone inputs found on HDSLR cameras. No cables are included with this microphone, so Sennheiser makes the separately available KA 600 coiled cable specifically for connecting the MKE 600’s XLR output to mini-plug mic inputs. You can also use the Pearstone LMT100 impedance matching transformer cable for this purpose as well.

Maybe the KA600 & 600i can be used with the K6-module also...there is no info on that... ?

It is as important to keep the sensitivity up and the noise down...the ME66 or 67 with the K6 module and a connector cable seems to be a pretty good alternative for the money.
 
I talked to a person at sennheiser,sweden today, who told me that the ka600 and ka600i works ok with the k6/module, and he will try to add it as an accessory to the k6/module on their homepage.
 
Last edited:
I would greatly appreciate any advice. I recently got a Sennheiser Me66/K6 from someone this forum. The device look in good shape and has not been used much as I understand it.

I use it with an Olympus LS12. The LS records equally on both channels but with the Me66 one channel records a lot weaker then the other. The recording with the Me66 is powerful but I don't like one channel being so much stronger then the other. Is there something I can do about this?

Peter
 
There is a setting in the meny which allows the mono recording to be recorded same ln both channels.
Maybe you can find that setting yourself, i will check on my ls 11 tonight and
Get back to you if you still havent found the setting, please
Let us now if you do.

Anders
 
Try using recording format "mono".

EDIT: When I checked my settings now in the evening, on the LS-11, It was set to wav/PCM 44,1khz 16 bit, and it was not the mono variant.
I couldn´t find any other setting that was used to split from mono to stereo. from the ME66/K6. It must be done in the cable instead. What cable do you use between LS-12 and K6 ?
PIP is off.

Anders
 
Last edited:
My cable between ME66/K6 and LS-11

Here is how my cable is connected....

Anders
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2022.jpg
    IMG_2022.jpg
    62.4 KB · Views: 249
I don't know whether that cable diagram is correct or not. Did you build the cable yourself? If not, is it possible that one channel is intentionally lower in order to have something to work with if the other channel clips?
 
I built the cable myself, found some drawings on the "web".
I don´t perceive one channel lower than the other.

I recently bought the sennheiser KA 600 , Article No. 505633 (acessory to MKE600) as an alternate cable, said to work with me66/k6 according to sennheiser, and it does, it gives the same good perceived result. I measured it also and it has the same coupling scheme.

Anders
 
I built the cable myself, found some drawings on the "web".
I don´t perceive one channel lower than the other.

I recently bought the sennheiser KA 600 , Article No. 505633 (acessory to MKE600) as an alternate cable, said to work with me66/k6 according to sennheiser, and it does, it gives the same good perceived result. I measured it also and it has the same coupling scheme.
Sorry, thought you were the OP. Peter, where did you get your cable? Does it have a part number?
 
Sorry, thought you were the OP. Peter, where did you get your cable? Does it have a part number?

No, nothing on it at all. I am off to Halmahera tomorrow morning so can do nothing about this for now. Will see what I can do once back in Thailand in 3 weeks time.

I am tole the mike is mono but I find it irritating that only one channel is strong and the other weak.

Thank you for your help...
 
I built the cable myself, found some drawings on the "web".
I don´t perceive one channel lower than the other.

I recently bought the sennheiser KA 600 , Article No. 505633 (acessory to MKE600) as an alternate cable, said to work with me66/k6 according to sennheiser, and it does, it gives the same good perceived result. I measured it also and it has the same coupling scheme.

Anders

Anders,
I have to look into this more once I get home. I am off to Halmahera tomorrow morning.
Thank you for your help.
Peter
 
Beware of K6-CL, didn´t know it existed...

If you buy a K6, be sure it is the "normal" variant and not the K6-CL which has lower amplification. Sennheiser, Denmark, takes 625 SEK to modify it to normal standard, I have let them do that to one used K6-CL I got, a bummer it wasn´t the "normal" K6 i bought. :smoke:

Anders
 
Anders,
How would I know if mine is the CL version or the normal one? I bought it second-hand, advertised as a K6, but there was no box/documentation with it.
Cheers,
David
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top