Heil microphones and my station......
This is a really nice email I received from Bob Heil - that Mr Heil has
taken time to reply to my questions personally and follow-up with
further information, makes me quite impressed. The email explains
better than I, why condenser mics are not the best for amateur radio.
----- Original Message -----
From:
Bob Heil
To:
Mark M0MRR
Sent:
Thursday, October 11, 2007 6:19 PM
Subject:
Re: TERRIFIC WEB SITE!
Hi Mark
Just back form the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York City. Of course, our award winning microphones were the 'buzz' of the entire show......sitting beside microphones that cost up to $20,000, the new Heil large diaphragm dynamics hold their own. So much fun to bring NEW technology to the industry.
Mark your site is terrific. Great job in putting all of that together but better yet is your great station. You have done stellar work with the SDR. I DO have one suggestion to help the fellows as they read through your site and that is to EXPLAIN why your Chinese condenser microphone did not work well.
The reason that the B-1 microphones doesn't work well is that it is a condenser. Condenser microphones are just a tragedy. Yes....a tragedy ! They should NEVER be used in ANY amateur radio, live stage or broadcast application. They have WAY too much gain and cause so many problmes in each situation. Phase cancellation between the unwanted sounds they hear and the direct sound you are TRYING to hear gives every one of them a 'strange' sound. Just too sensitive.
Condenser mics were developed to record a quiet oboe or violins in the corner of a VERY controlled recording studio. Placing them outside of this venue brings on nothing short of disasters. Too much gain. They pick up everything for 50 feet (or more) and with amateur radio, they are just simply horrible. WAY too much gain and you have to contend with that ridiculous phantom power for the electronics inside which ends up as an 'antenna' causing excessive RFI problems.
We at Heil Sound have proved to the industry that you CAN have a dynamic that outperforms the condenser. Yes, it is hard to believe and many of the uninformed will not believe me - UNTIL they actually replace their overly sensitive Chinese condensers with the new technology of the large diaphragm Heil PR 20, 30 40 or PR 781. Nothing will compare. With over 1,000 commercial broadcast stations, thousands of touring musicians and Grammy award winning studios have discovered them - and it was all at the suggestion and help of my long time friend and client Joe Walsh (of the Eagles), WB6ACU who had just enough of the poor quality microphones being built by the 'big boys' today. He and I got out our soldering irons and put on our 'good ears'. Joe is very technical and KNEW there were better materials and technologies these days. The result of the Heil PR series continues to blow any and everything out of their shock mounts these days.....and they are large passive diaphragm dynamics that have tons of gain and an industry first - over -45 dB of REAR rejection! This is one of the major features we have been able to achieve. No other microphone will exhibit this kind of REAR rejection. You just don't hear any of the acoustic reflections from behind. They are canceled.
The other magnificent thing about the Heil microphones are their ability to used at 90 degree off axis. When you move off axis a few degrees with ANY other microphone the sound starts to loose the low end and become nasal sounding. The PR series stay with you all the way out to 90 degrees. This is an industry masterpiece, Mark. Try is. Talk straight into your microphone and then slowly turn it 90 degrees. The sound stays with you and immediately after 90, it is GONE! What is left is that gorgeous articulate Heil audio. We learned years ago what frequencies of the human voice were most important and one of the important features of ALL Heil microphones is that they are VERY articulate and need little, if any equalization. Hearing is believe in we continue to blaze new trails with the sound of the great new technology of the HEIL large diaphragm microphones.
I would like to put a link to your site under our SDR information. It truly is the best site I have seen so far to help the fellows.
Please stay in touch and congratulations on such a wonderful station.
Best Regards,
BOB HEIL