[15:51 Mon,31.March 2025 by Rudi Schmidts] |
For 50 years now, it has been used by broadcasters, filmmakers and content professionals, in studios and in the field: The MKH 416 P48 shotgun microphone from Sennheiser is celebrating its round birthday! The fact that a microphone has been selling well practically unchanged for half a century should speak for its qualities alone. During its lifetime, there have only been two relatively minor changes: one to make the microphone suitable for SMD assembly and a second modification to use an improved transducer. ;) The Sennheiser MKH 416 P48 shotgun microphone turns 50 years old.
The outstanding feature at the time was the RF condenser principle. RF stands for radio frequency and has nothing to do with wireless technology, but refers to the high capsule voltage and the corresponding electronics in the microphone. This results in a remarkable climate resistance of the condenser microphone - in contrast to conventional (AF) condenser microphones, it is quite insensitive to moisture and can be used outdoors without any problems, regardless of whether the weather is hot and humid or cold and foggy. This design has already proven itself successfully in the Arctic, in the desert and in the rainforest. No less relevant is certainly the directivity of the MKH 416, which is based on the acoustic interference principle. An interference tube sits in front of the microphone capsule. This tube has slots that are covered on one side with a certain acoustic impedance. This prevents reflections and standing waves inside the tube. If sound hits the microphone from the front, the interference tube has no effect. However, if sound hits it from the side, it enters through different slots, which leads to differences in transit time. As a result, these sound components largely cancel each other out depending on the angle of the incident sound event. This effect increases towards high frequencies: Thus, the microphone essentially picks up the sound from the front. This is crucial for speech intelligibility, as the formants that are decisive for this are not as affected by lateral interference at high frequencies as with standard microphones. This ensures that on the one hand you can very clearly separate voices from background noise, but on the other hand you have to "fish" very accurately. Even slight deviations in direction quickly make the source sound much duller. One reason for the never-ending success of the MKH 416 is certainly that it has a very effective directivity despite its comparatively short length. How this "perfect" length came about can be read at  in the news section of Sennheiser. ;) The Sennheiser MKH 416 P48 shotgun microphone turns 50 years old. We wish the MKH 416 - which is also an indispensable part of many of our readers& setups (see www.slashcam.de/forum//viewtopic.php?p=1258184#1258184) - a long and exciting life. And who knows, maybe it will still be available almost unchanged in another 50 years.  more infos at bei newsroom.sennheiser.comdeutsche Version dieser Seite: 50 Jahre und kein bisschen leise - Sennheiser Rohrrichtmikrofon MKH 416 P48 |
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