beyerdynamic MC-950

Good sound with limitations

Beautifully made, the MC-950 feels solid and has switchable LFA and a pad which puts it in the territory for location recording to reduce handling and wind noise.

It sounds accurate and slightly warmer than the Sennheiser 8050 and seems less sensitive to handling noise, even with the LFA set to flat..

However, it does suffer from a high degree of self noise, more so than a microphone of this pedigree should. In a normal domestic room, this noise is very noticeable at voice levels.

Its possibly not an issue in an environment with high SPLs but would be with quieter solo instruments.

This is the second one I have tried. The first had such high self noise, I could barely hear a signal while speaking normally and there was no room atmosphere, just hiss.

I'm surprised that a professional microphone from a such an established and well-regarded company should fall short of the mark. A shame since, on paper it looks perfect.