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Occasional posts on subjects including field recording, London history and literature, other websites worth looking at, articles in the press, and news of sound-related events.
22 May 2011
DPA's new 2006C Reference Standard mic: first impressions
RIGHT NOW I’M contemplating baked beans. Not even Heinz beans or HP beans, but large tins of the cheapest catering-grade baked beans where the sauce is thin and sour.
The reason is I’ve just shelled out for a pair of DPA 2006C omnidirectional mics. They’re part of DPA’s new Reference Standard series of interchangeable preamps and capsules.
The DPA 2006Cs are phantom-powered yet quite small at the same time. This makes them candidates for a part in a new headworn recording setup that I’ve been thinking of for a while. The specifications might help explain why they were chosen.
Self-noise is rated at 16dB(A). This is lower than any other mic you could conceivably stick on each of your head and escape having stones thrown at you in public, with the exception of some using remote capsules, of which more later. Sensitivity is high at 40mV/Pa. The frequency response looks mirror-smooth apart from a 3dB boost at 14kHz:
The DPA 2006C can cope with temperatures ranging from -40 °C to 45 °C and a relative humidity level of up to 90%, making it suitable for all-year-round outdoor use in Britain. The mic is just over two inches or 58mm long, and 19mm wide. Yet it feels quite hefty and solid at 60g/two ounces.
The capsule can be removed and replaced by any other from the Reference Standard range. These include cardioid, wide-cardioid, shotgun and the more expensive MMC4006 omni capsules. The mic is so nicely machined that it’s oddly satisfying just screwing and unscrewing the capsule from the preamp, until you remember you’re supposed to record sounds with it.
Each mic comes with a foam windshield and one of DPA’s own mic clips. These are absurdly expensive when bought individually but the clip does make it easy to hold each mic against the side of your head, so that the capsule is somewhere around your temple.
Here’s what it sounded like on Merton High Street yesterday. The river Wandle flows through a culvert in front of a supermarket, and you can hear it trickling past:
To my ears the sound is rather more detailed than what I’d expect from the headworn Shure WL-183s that I use. Traffic rumble is strong without being harsh and high-pitched noises are well-defined too. Here is a slightly quieter environment, recorded from a footbridge spanning the river Wandle in Earlsfield:
Neither of those situations show off the DPA 2006C’s low self-noise, but perhaps they give some idea of the mic’s overall character when used in fairly typical outdoor urban settings. Thomann’s are now selling the DPA 2006C at below the recommended retail price.
There are alternatives for headworn enthusiasts seeking high quality mics with sub-20dB(A) self-noise. Models made by Neumann and Sennheiser allow their capsules to be mounted remotely by connecting the capsule to the mic preamp with a length of cable. But they’re expensive, and the cable for the Neumann KM100 series doesn’t seem easy to track down.
Fortunately, Rode provide a more affordable option with their NT6 cardioid mic, with which you can swap the cardioids for Rode’s NT45-O omnidirectional capsules, although you’ll need to buy the latter separately. With those it’d work out at around £635 a pair.
More later on mounting and powering the DPA 2006Cs so they make a high-quality, discreet and versatile headworn stereo recording setup.
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Street Cries: London Lickpenny – February 2020
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More January street cries – January 2020
Tidal Thames: Procter & Gamble, Thurrock – January 2020
Street Cries: January 2020 addition – January 2020
Sounds of the London Loop – December 2019
LMA talk: thank you – November 2019
Recordings: November 2019 additions – November 2019
November talk – November 2019
Street Cries: October 2019 additions – October 2019
New guestbook – October 2019
Rutting season – October 2019
The clattering bridge – October 2019
London Metropolitan Archives – March 2019
Street cries now being added to Pinterest – January 2019
Social media – January 2019
Recent site upgrades – December 2018
Hiatus – August 2018
BBC sound effects plotted on a map – July 2018
In memory of Richard Beard, wildlife recordist – June 2018
New section on historical street cries – April 2018
Long in the tooth – June 2017
Acoustic baffle – January 2017
MixPre-D clamp – November 2016
New York Times – August 2016
The EU referendum and the silence of the streets – June 2016
Media chancers – April 2016
New feature: Sounds of the Musical Museum – February 2016
The soundscape of Oxford Street – December 2015
Tim Hunkin – November 2015
The reverberant city – November 2015
New! Old! More historical recordings added – November 2015
Sounds of 1960s Las Vegas – November 2015
Five fundamental stances in recording – October 2015
The trouble with sound maps – May 2015
The average of the average – March 2015
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Why girls shouldn't run away to London – February 2015
Arthur Machen: the sounds from beyond the veil – February 2015
Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods by Tom Bolton – January 2015
Sound and Music's Creative Data Club – January 2015
Out of town: Whittlesey Straw Bear festival – January 2015
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Down with noise: first impressions of Sennheiser MKH 8020 mics – December 2014
The Block: making a simple stereo baffle – December 2014
Thanks to everyone at the Marlborough and the Social – December 2014
The London Sound Survey as a full-time concern – August 2014
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Guest post from Cities and Memory – May 2014
Darwin among the earthworms – May 2014
Up with the lark: soundCamp in Rotherhithe, May 3–4 – April 2014
Coming this April: Field Studies 2014 – March 2014
Hello and welcome to Mail Online readers – January 2014
Sensing Cities back on Resonance 104.4 FM from this Friday – January 2014
Sounds in poetry: 'Adlestrop' and 'Death of a Naturalist' – January 2014
Sound and the Law: Sounds you must and must not make – November 2013
Sound and the Law: What are the limits on recording? – October 2013
Permanent present – September 2013
Ships' Opera at the Thames Festival – September 2013
Quiet please #2: Peabody estate, Victoria – September 2013
Extra! Recordings of English newspaper sellers – August 2013
Quiet please #1: Lincoln's Inn – August 2013
All systems go – July 2013
London Sound Survey LP progress report – June 2013
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Street noise and the taming of Victorian London – April 2013
Here soon: the London Sound Survey vinyl LP – March 2013
Crossing the Thames at Woolwich – March 2013
Sounds of disaster in peacetime London – February 2013
Reverberation and Authority – January 2013
London on Christmas Eve – December 2012
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The slow movement – February 2012
Thoughts on classifying field recordings – February 2012
Building a field recording system 3: recorder accessories – January 2012
Building a field recording system 2: the compact recorder – January 2012
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Nice to meet you, London Historians – January 2012
Thanks, Londonist – December 2011
James Greenwood's 'The Wilds of London' from 1874 – December 2011
Our synthetic sound environment – December 2011
Making engine noises with a jam jar – December 2011
Spam attack! – December 2011
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Some recordings from the Waterways sound map – November 2011
Victoria coach station in 1935 and 2011 – November 2011
London sounds from 1930s and 1940s BBC radio – October 2011
Your recordings from Embankment and Dalston – October 2011
When the planes stopped flying – September 2011
Sound and health – September 2011
New recordings in from Sam Appleby and Craig Barrett – September 2011
Making soundmaps with iframes and image maps – September 2011
Sound-mapping London's waterways – August 2011
Looting the Iceland store in Rye Lane, Peckham – August 2011
East London Line recorded by John Bingham Hall – August 2011
Wind-powered sound art in Cumbria – July 2011
Sonic pleasures of the landline telephone – June 2011
Les Passages Couverts – English Style – June 2011
Shopaholic – June 2011
Sounds of the Thames estuary remembered – June 2011
The London Sound Survey at SoundFjord, 12th June – June 2011
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Howling wolf – March 2011
Cuckold's Haven – March 2011
Willesden Junction at dawn – February 2011
Mug-house riots and a short history of hissing – February 2011
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Historical maps now online – February 2011
Make the darkness your friend – January 2011
New uses for old London maps – January 2011
Real sounds of Lagos – January 2011
Sound maps from Inukjuak and New York State – January 2011
The All-in-One London Map is now online – January 2011
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Sounds unreal – July 2010
Jack London among the Cockneys – July 2010
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New Thames estuary section now added – July 2010
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The walk won't do you good – June 2010
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The London Nobody Sings – May 2010
Out and about on May Day – May 2010
Nocturnal emitters – May 2010
The sounds and history of Caledonian Road – April 2010
Two south London dawn choruses – April 2010
Volcano makes London plane-free – April 2010
Quiet please – April 2010
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???????????? ? ????? ?????????? ? ???, ??????? ????????? – January 2010
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Fairground barkers – July 2009
A few words at the beginning – May 2009
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