greetings earthlings today i'm back with a very unsexy microphone or
i mean a very sexy microphone review that's what no i mean you won't believe what this thing does
please watch just please watch the video i need your acceptance the microphone that
we're looking at today is the sennheiser md 42 which is an omni-directional dynamic microphone
used for in the field reporting or electronic news gathering if you are interested in this microphone
it will cost you around 200 like always i'll throw some links down below and for this review i have
the microphone connected directly to the 18i 22nd gen my gain is set just shy of 100 percent
i will not do any kind of post processing but i may have to boost it in post so check
the dooblydoo to see what ideally did and now let's talk about what comes in the box
first off everything comes in a plastic storage box you'll of course get the microphone and you'll
get some documentation that's right you get no microphone clip with this microphone because
it is intended to only be a handheld microphone then as far as the build quality just like every
single electronic news gathering microphone this thing is built like an absolute tank it has an
all-metal body which is quite long especially when compared to a standard handheld microphone
it measures in at 9.84 inches or 250 millimeters it does have a metal grille which has no give to
it it weighs in at 360 grams as you move around the microphone there are no buttons no switches no
nothing and on the bottom you'll find the xlr port and it's made in germany then as far as the specs
this microphone has an omnidirectional polar pattern which is why it is a reporting microphone
it has a frequency response of 40 hertz to 18 kilohertz a sensitivity of approximately negative
54 decibels and an impedance of 350 ohms now let's go ahead and test the polar pattern of this thing
and i will just slowly move around the microphone 180 degrees going around and we are back where
we started and now i am speaking into the top of the microphone you can tell
i am getting a much clearer sound i will go ahead and rotate around to 90 degrees you
can hear a lot of the top end fall off we'll continue around to the rear of the microphone
here's how it sounds from here continuing around the microphone to the second 90 degree angle and
then rotating and ending at the front of the mic because this is a handheld microphone i will go
ahead and pass it back and forth between my hands to see how it does at rejecting that kind of noise
of course we will test the plosive rejection of this thing please bring pizza pronto please bring
pizza pronto please bring pizza pronto now i am right on top of the microphone and you should
not hear any actual proximity effect because this is an omnidirectional microphone meaning
it does not experience the proximity effect now i'm about three inches away from the microphone
and here is how it sounds about one foot away from the microphone and about two feet away from
the microphone speaking into the top of it and now to demonstrate how you may actually be using this
in the real world now i'm about a foot maybe a foot and a half away from the mic
i am speaking into it at about a 45 degree angle downwards and this is the position i would most
likely be using it if i was interviewing somebody face to face if we weren't in these current times
and the person would be where you are and you would be speaking into the microphone this is
the sound that you could expect if you used it in this setup now let's go ahead and see how well
this microphone does at focusing in on the human voice in a loud environment like a traffic jam
welcome back to the nine o'clock news on channel 6 wnyc as you have heard a comet
is headed directly for earth the likelihood of a direct impact is nearly 100 this could
not come soon enough i await the sweet sweet relief of death back to you cheryl
why did the traffic stop here's how the microphone sounds in a
well-treated room although i don't think this is a particularly useful test for this microphone
and here's how the microphone sounds in a completely untreated room
i know it's not ideal it's the best i can do no microphone clip
of course i will tap the microphone's body to see if there are any kind of resonant frequencies
and if you are an absolute maniac and you decide to cup the sennheiser omnidirectional md42
here's how it sounds and i hope you get locked up you maniac now i want to do a very quick
comparison between the sennheiser md42 and all the other eng microphones that i have so we can see
how it stacks up against all the other competition out there of course we will start with the md42 i
am six inches off of the microphone gain nearly at 100 percent and here is how the audio sounds
first up i am on the movo hmm2 which is another reporting handheld omnidirectional microphone i
am six inches off gain at the exact same distance check the lower third to see how much i boosted it
and here is how it sounds compared to the senny the sennheiser we are back on the sennheiser md
42 a 200 microphone gain at the same distance gained at the same amount distance at the same
space words are hard here's how it sounds let's jump to another one now i am talking into the
rode reporter microphone which goes for about 130 dollars this is another interviewer eng microphone
same distance same gain setting and here is how it sounds compared to the sennheiser
back on the sennheiser md 42 still six inches away gained nearly 100 percent here's how the audio
sounds at this distance let's jump to another one so you can hear how it compares to that
now i am speaking into one of the most famous eng microphones the electro voice ev635a
this thing will go for about 140 and i am at the same distance same gain setting
and here's how it sounds compared to a more modern microphone the md-42 again we are back on the
sennheiser md 42 sennheiser's eng offering here is how the microphone sounds make sure to check
the lower thirds to see how much i boost each of these microphones and let's jump to the next one
now i'm speaking into the electro voice re50b another handheld omnidirectional
dynamic microphone i am six inches off gain at the exact same amount and here is how the
audio compares to the sennheiser as well as all the other microphones that i have tested so far
alright you never would have guessed it but we are back on the md42 here is how the microphone sounds
let's jump to one more microphone and compare it to that and lastly i am speaking into the
luit interviewer which is a 200 eng microphone i am six inches off gain at the exact same amount
and here is how it sounds let me know in the comments down below which of these microphones
did you like the best the luit the electro voice the rode the movo or the seni the sennheiser
let me know in the comments down below welp this may not have been a very sexy or exciting review
not all of them can be but i think this microphone is designed for a very specific use case and i
think it would perform that job admirably and first up in terms of pros the build quality
of this microphone does feel excellent it also did a surprisingly good job at plosive rejection
the handling noise wasn't the best but it wasn't terrible it also has a hotter output than a lot of
the other eng microphones and it does have a much better look to it than the puke color of the 635a
even though this does hold a special place in my heart and then in terms of cons the sound it is a
bit top heavy it's not the smoothest and it's not particularly pleasing to listen to although when i
compare it to all of the eng mics that i have none of them are particularly good sounding and i do
think that's partially by design and now what are my overall thoughts of this microphone we're
not talking about any kind of music applications because you would not use this for music but for
spoken word as i mentioned it is very very top-heavy and i think that is intentional
i think it is to really capture and draw out the articulation and detail in your voice especially
in a loud environment where that may start to get lost also the midsection isn't overly congested
sounding it's not overly nasally which i think is really nice especially when we compared it
to some of the older offerings out there and the low end is a bit lacking but again i think that's
by design to limit the amount of low end rumble from crowd noise or traffic noise while you're
reporting with this microphone in the field and now would i recommend the sennheiser md42 handheld
dynamic omnidirectional reporting electronic news gathering microphone sure yes i would
out of all of the microphones that i compared in this video i liked the sennheiser the rode
and the luit mic the best the electro voices and the movo just sounded a bit too muffled
and congested which is not something you want in a loud environment where it's hard to hear you
all three of the microphones that i liked have a nice amount of detail to them and articulation
which will make it easier to understand what you're trying to say into the microphone i
can't tell you which one of these microphones that you like the tone of the best or which of
these microphones will fit your use cases the best you will have to decide that for yourself
but as far as the sennheiser i do think that it would be a very successful eng
or field reporting microphone all right i think that's going to wrap up for today but like always
i want to hear from you in the comments down below which of the microphones that i compared
the sennheiser against did you like the best did you like the sunny the luit the road the evs
or the movo let me know in the comments down below if you found this video fun interesting or
helpful go ahead and give me a thumbs up if you hated it thumbs down want more video subscribe
logo down beneath me don't forget to hit that bell icon want to talk about microphones all day go to
the discord server podcastage.com discord do it also if you want to support the channel and
become one of these amazing people over here you can do so by clicking that join button and joining
at the five dollar tier or higher it really does help me continue to bring you these videos until
next time thank you so much for watching thank you so much for listening i'll talk to you later bye
you