[Anechoic]

I apologize if starting Yet Another Dayton EMM-6 thread seems excessive but since this is time sensitive, I wanted to make sure I got your attention.

Parts-Express is having a sale on EMM-6 microphones: $39 + shipping!

Being the magnanimous guy I am, I figured I'd calibrate a few EMM-6 mics and pass the savings on to you!

CSL-calibrated EMM-6 microphones, starting at $70 + shipping.

Of course that pricing is for the little people. Home Theater Shack members are special people (special in a good way of course ).

Any Home Theater Shack member who has an account as of September 17 gets $5 off. Just include your HTS username in the "additional information" section of the order form and I'll refund the $5.

The PE sale ends on Thursday, Sep 24. When it ends, so does my sale.

 

[Anechoic]

Based on the two units I measured (the results of which are plotted in my other EMM thread) they seem substantially the same. The only difference I noticed is that the EMM-6 low freq response between 20 and 100 Hz is flatter than the ECM8000, but the response below 10 Hz seems to drop off faster.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Anechoic]

Re: CSL-Calibrated EMM-6 microphone sale

Strangely, almost all pencil omnis use the exact same Panasonic capsules including some of the Earthworks mics. The main difference is #1, how the capsules are preselected/sorted and #2, the internal electronics. After my dissapointment with the Behringers, I returned them and got a set of Avenson STO-2s which come as a matched pair in a nice little wood case. They're cleaner and quieter which is great for me since I do recording work.

The other issue is the manufacturing tolerances and consistency. I mentioned in the other ECM8000 thread that the map capsule seems to be positioned differently in the mic housing form unit to unit and I think this is a major cause of a lot of the high-frequency variations amount ECM8000's. You're correct that the Earthworks mics use those capsules (I thought that was supposed to be a secret!) but I think they're choosier in which capsule they use and take more care in enforcing the manufacturing tolerances.

 

[Anechoic]

Thanks for doing this for us!!

Thank you all for sending me your hard-earned dough! Believe it or not, you guys here have helped me weather this economic downturn and I'm happy to try to give a little back. :T

 

[Anechoic]

IMO you ought to be ******** exstatic at ~$550 a pair. Did they come with cal files down to 5Hz???:whistling:


Back on topic:bigsmile:
I've yet to delve into fullrange speaker design but I do like to measure subs, so the cal down to 5Hz is right up my alley. My pockets are lean but this looks like a great deal.

I heard that. Depending on how my own pockets look, I might be willing to buy a few extra units and extend the offer for HTS users a little longer, but it's a BIG "might." Hmm, maybe I should look into a lay-away plan...

Could you expand a bit on what were getting, is it SPL and Phase? And I'm curious about your reference and it's "traceability?"

I don't do phase measurements since condenser mics aren't minimum phase so to give a microphone phase measurement requires a known reference. The manufacturer of one of my mics gave me a theoretical phase curve for the mic, but I've been experimenting with it over the past few weeks and I don't think it's actually correct. So for now it's SPL only, but I am working on getting good phase measurement process.

As for the reference/methodology, traceability and accuracy, I refer you to the other posts I've written on these issues.

If you could PM me a total price shipped to ZIP 43081...

I'll PM you, but for everyone else, domestic shipping (USPS Priority mail) is a flat $9 and international shipping ranges from $25-$35USD depending on the country. Total price depends on the mic option you chose.

 

[Anechoic]

Sheesh people, I know this is a limit-time sale, but wow! :unbelievable:

Also, if you meet the membership requirements, don't forget to put your HTS username on the order!

If you're expecting a refund and don't get it within 24 hours, please PM me.

 

[Anechoic]

For someone who doesn't know much (me), can you give a little more information on the different levels of calibration?

None of us really now all that much, some of us are just better than others at hiding it.

I saw the explanations on your website, but I don't know what that means in practical terms.

If I buy a mic, it would be to help check my in room sub frequency response.

Short answer: If you're only really going to use it for low-frequency measurements, the basic model will be fine.

Long answer: The reason I have different options is that omni-directional mics (which are supposed to have the same response to a given sound wave no matter what direction it comes from) don't actually act omni-directional at higher frequencies. High-frequency wavelengths are relatively small, so when they come into contact with the microphone, they reflect off the mic in different directions so the response of the mic to those high-frequencies is heavily dependent on the orientation of the microphone to the sound wave.

The more-expensive mics I sell basically contain information to let a user know and account for the directional effects at higher frequencies. For example, if someone is using to use the microphone for high-frequency room-calibration purposes, it's useful to know the directional characteristics of the microphone so they could adjust their measurement methodology accordingly.

Low-frequency wavelengths are so long (~10ft at 100 Hz, ~20ft at 50 Hz) compared with the microphone that almost all mics act omnidirectional at those frequencies. So if you're only going to measure low-frequency stuff, it doesn't matter what direction you hold the microphone in and therefore the basic model (which doesn't include any of the high-freq directional information) should suffice.

Does this help?

 

[Anechoic]

I have an interest in getting a pair for recording use. Is there anything special you can do to match a pair? I'd think sensitivity and freq. response would need to be very close to each other....
Would this involve any extra cost?

There's pretty much no practical way I could get you a pair of matched ECM8000's or EMM-6's. The variation between units is just too unpredictable. I've had mics that matched up pretty well but those are pretty rare - I'd have to probably buy a something like 30 mics to see if they matched, and if they didn't I'd have a good amount of money sitting in slow-selling inventory during a recession.

Sorry.

 

[Anechoic]

I would like to buy one of the calibrated mikes, but not sure which one to get. I'll primarily use it for subwoofer calibration but would also like to be able to use it for full range testing of our Klipshorns.

If loudspeaker measurements are your primary use (as opposed to room acoustics), you should be okay with the basic model.

Also can you ship via US Mail to Canada? We find it's by far the cheapest way.

I typically ship US Postal Service Priority mail, which is $21 to Canada for 6-10 day delivery. I can also ship US Postal Service parcel post to Canada for $10, just be aware that there's no tracking and I have no idea how long it will take. If you want to do parcel post, PM me and I'll send you a PayPal invoice directly.

 

[Anechoic]

Update:

As an FYI, I am getting absolutely inundated with orders. My Friday and early Sat orders (particularly he Basic and Basic+ orders) should ship by mid/end of this week. However the polar measurements take me a while to do so the Premium models might take longer to ship out. In any event, I have to ship everything out by Sep 30 since I'll be traveling in the Bay Area for a wedding on Oct 1-4 and don't want to get people too mad at me.

(to be honest I'm also getting afraid that PE might run out of mics - keep your fingers crossed!).

 

[Anechoic]

Hey Anechoic!
Nice you having this sale.
Can I get them here in Brazil?, I have a an international cc, paypal and a WAMU account.
I´ve been living in Brazil for about 2 years now, and I was wondering if you could ship it over here...
Thanks,
Mauricio Cajueiro.

Shipping to Brazil is $27USD. You can place an order at the site and select Brazil as the ship-to country.

 

[Anechoic]

I ordered a calibrated mic. Do I need a microphone preamp to power it in order to use REW? Any suggestions to which one if it is needed?
Thanks!
D

You'll need something to provide phantom power for the microphone. I'll let others give pre-amp/soundcard recommendations, but I'm partial to the Presonus firewire line of sound cards.

 

[Anechoic]

Hi Herb,

Do the Presonus cards work with ARTA?

Yup. And I can say that definitely since I use a Presonus Firebox with ARTA.

 

[Anechoic]

Sorry for quoting myself here, but perhaps Anechoic missed this. I would like to order a mic, and know the sale ends soon. Which one should I order considering the above?

Thanks very much,
Rod

Sorry about that. My guess is that you would be okay with the Basic+ model.

 

[Anechoic]

Well boys and girls, the sale is over.

This is what I'm left to deal with:

(this is shipment #1 of 6)

So I'm going to be pretty busy in the lab trying to process all these mics. First batch went out already and the next batch should go out later today.

I'll try to pop back in later with some observations by my initial impression is that the ECM8000 is a batter mic below 20 Hz and the EMM-6 is a better mic above 20 Hz.

The good news for those that missed the sale is that when I'm done filling all the orders I should have some extras that I'll sell for the discounted rate. I'm not going to offer the $5 off for HTS members, but I will post here first to give HTS members a shot at it. Those extras probably won't go on sale until the 2nd week of October, but since I'll already have them, they should ship quickly.

Thanks a lot guys for giving me my own little stimulus program.

 

[Anechoic]

Hi Anechoic,

I ordered the Premium service the day this deal came out and I have a question about the sensitivity measurement. Is the sensitivity figure an open-loop voltage (load impedance >> source impedance) or a voltage delivered to a preamp input impedance which may be low enough to make a difference?

EMM-6 source impedance is quoted as 200 ohms. My microphone preamp (EMU 0404 USB) has an input impedance of 1500 ohms. The voltage at the preamp would then be 1500/1700 = 0.882... times the open-loop voltage or approximately -1 dB.

Interesting question indeed.

It's an open-loop voltage measurement.

 

[Anechoic]

Hi everyone,

I've been getting a bunch of messages essentially asking "where's my microphone"?

Since you've given me your hard-earned money, that is a completely reasonable question deserving of an answer.

I've shipped out ~35 mics so far. Up to this point I've been attempting to get mics out a few at a time every day on first-come, first-served order basis out of a sense of trying to be fair. I've come to realize that this was horribly inefficient so what I've been doing is processing mics in lots of 75 to try to get them out.

Orders placed before Sep 21, should go out by Weds (a few might dribble out on Thursday). I mentioned earlier in this thread and on the order page that orders placed after 9/21 won't ship until Oct 6. However, I might be able to get a few basic orders out before than.

Please be patient. If this isn't acceptable to anyone, you may of course have your order refunded. If you have a specific need, contact me directly and I'll see what I can do for you.

Thx

 

[Anechoic]

Update: about 2/3 of the orders have been shipped out. A few trickled out today, a few will trickle out tomorrow, and the bulk of the remainder should go out on Wednesday. Some people made special requests when making their orders - those orders will hopefully go out by the end of the week.

BTW, I will have extras. Stay tuned.

 

[Anechoic]

Don't sweat it, I was away for the weekend and now that I'm back I just wanted to give a status update. You good people have given me your money and you all have every right to know when you should expect to get what you paid for.

 

[Anechoic]

I had hoped to wrap up all the orders by yesterday, but they didn't happen - all the mics are finished, but printing invoices, keeping track of orders and packing everything is taking forever. On the plus side, a few of you (accidentally) got free upgrades with your orders. Enjoy!

As for everyone else - final order group will ship tomorrow.