Sennheiser recently sent me six different microphones ranging from $49 to $999. Does spending more money really get you better sound quality? You are the judge.
This microphone comes with a 1/8 or USB-C headphone jack. It’s a cheap, fast, wired lav that can be used with a smartphone, computer, or directly into a camera.
This is a wireless lav system that is extremely easy to operate. Instead of complicated menus and channels, simply turn on the receiver and transmitter and they will automatically start working.
This small microphone can be paired with a smartphone or camera. It doesn’t have any buttons or batteries inside. Just plug it in and it will work.
The MKE 400 is a shotgun mic built to be mounted on top of a camera. It has a built-in battery, a high-pass filter, a gain switch, and a headphone output for monitoring.
The MKE 600 is similar to the 400 in that it has an internal battery, but it also has an XLR jack on the back, giving you the option of using it on top of a camera with its own battery, or plugging in with phantom power.
The 416 is one of the most famous pistol mics in the world. It has no fancy features. You simply plug it in with an XLR cable for world-class audio capture.
Inference
Watch the video above to hear each microphone side by side, but here’s my opinion: The mobile phone XS Lav has a really bad sound, especially when you compare it to the wireless lav. The XSW lav system sounds really great, with a pleasingly flat profile. The MKE sounds brighter than lav but sounds noticeably worse than the MKE 400. To my ears, the 400 and 600 sound almost identical. Surprisingly, when I compared the 400 and 600 with the MKH 416 in my concrete room, I liked the cheaper mic. Keeping the price in mind, the clear winner in this test for me is $199 MKE 400.
