VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Billy James]

Thinking about adding another dynamic mic to my bag of tricks, which currently includes the ElectroVoice RE-20 and RE-27.

The only major downside is that the EVs both have pretty low output levels , and need a fairly beefy preamp to really make 'em come to life.

Anyone had a chance to do a head-to-head between the EV RE-20 and the Heil PR-40?

From what I've read, the Heil is fairly close to the EV sonically, though it has a bit more of a proximity effect than the RE (which was specifically designed to mitigate this effect). How does the Heil compare on output level? IOW, is its output higher than the EV at equivalent input volumes?

[Mike Sommer]

Because dynamic mics work via electromagnetic induction they have lesser output. In simple terms it produces its own varying current.

Where as a condenser mic produces sound via varying capacitance of the microphones diaphragm. The capacitance from the mics capsule can be 5 to 100 pF (picofarads or trillionths of a farad) this is obviously a very low signal and needs to be boosted via the preamp in the mic.

What does this all mean? In the end the condenser mics have a higher output because of the microphones preamp. So you will always need a high output preamp (around 60 to 80 dB's) to get a good clean signal from a dynamic microphone.

If you want a higher output dynamic microphone I would suggest a Shure Model SM7B.

Here is how the dynamic mics stack up:

Shure SM7B -59 dB @1000 Hz

EV RE20 -57dB @1000 Hz

Shure SM58 -54.5dB @ 1000Hz

Heil PR-40 -53dB @1000Hz
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Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.

[Billy James]

Mike:

Your collection of output numbers was exactly the kind of comparison I was looking for.

The SM7B was on my short list anyway, and looks like it might be a better choice.

Thanks,
Billy