20 quid LDC

[ecc83]

Just bought this...

BTSKY™BM-800 Condenser Sound Recording Microphone + Mic Shock Mount, Ideal for radio broadcasting studio, voice-over sound studio, recording and so on (Blue)














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BTSKY™BM-800 Condenser Sound Recording Microphone + Mic Shock Mount, Ideal for radio broadcasting studio, voice-over sound studio, recording and so on (Blue)


GOT to be worth a punt? Will report back soon as...

Dave.

 

[John Willett]

Assume it's this one >>>> BTSKYâ„¢BM-800 Condenser Sound Recording Microphone: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics in black

It'll be interesting to see what the connection is, as the writeup seems to contradict itself a couple of times.

"Brand: BTSKY
Polar Pattern: Uni-directional
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz
Sensitivity: 45dB±1dB
Output Impedance:1500Ω±30%(at 1kHz)
Load impedance: ≥1000 Ω
Equivalent Noise level: 16dBA
Electrical current: 3mA
Microphone output interface: 3.5mm
Use of voltage: 48V phantom power supply
Wire: 3.5 inserted audio interface, 3 meter long
Microphone Material: Steel net + Zinc alloy hand holding part"


View attachment 95467

Is it a condenser mic. or a dynamic?

They say it's a condenser and then say "Neodymium magnet for high signal-to-noise ratio" - and you dont have a magnet in a condenser mic.

Personally I would run screaming from something that even the seller knows nothing about.

Oh, and I'm not sure it's an LDC at all - that's a wierd looking capsule in there.

 

[ecc83]

Well it came today and so did son from France with very little warning!

I therefore have not had long to play with it. Compared quickly with an AKG P150 it is 10dB more sensitive/quieter.

The RMA plot shows the rising noise level typical of a not so stellar selection of FET device but hey! 20 quid! The spikes are from the PC tower the KA6 is plugged into, will try it a m on a laptop in the living room, KA6 again. The lower graph is the remnant noise of the KA, not sure where the spikes at 1, 2, 3 and 9kHz have popped up from, not seen those before.

"Weird capsule" John? Looks bloody gorgeous to me! Look like a smaller, blingined up version of my Sontronics STC-2. Will post a picky the morrow.

Sunday son says he will came back and record some guitar for me Be interesting to see if the cheapy can be reliably picked out?

Dave.

 

[ecc83]

As expected the noise plot is cleaner using a very quiet laptop in my living room early this morning. Right channel is the Sontronics STC 2 (has not been used for months and seems to need to warm up. Noise floor jazzes about)

The mics were laid in a settee and I sat some 1.5mtrs away. I equalled the gains on rms noise in Sam 8 at about -61dBFS . A finger snap gave -14 on the DM and -27 on the STC, a sensitivity difference of 13dB.

Piling jumpers and other clothes on the mics did not reduce the noise floor appreciably but the finger snap was now all but lost. Conclusion therefore that we are seeing the electronic noise floor of both mics. (the noise of the KA6 pres is WAY below any of this)

Tomorrow should see musician son here to make some guitar recordings. I might even persuade him to sing! But don't hold your breaths!

The photo shows the mic to be almost exactly the same length as a 57. It is significantly smaller and lighter than the Sontronics but really is beautifully made, I just don't see how they can do this for a score! The cat's cradle shockmount is not a patch on the STC's and rather stiff, I doubt it will isolate down to very low frequencies but WTF there is always an HPF! They also give you a foam pop/spit shield. FKs why they include that weird XLR cable? Might it work straight into my laptop? Hold the presses!

Dave.

 

[John Willett]

"Weird capsule" John? Looks bloody gorgeous to me! Look like a smaller, blingined up version of my Sontronics STC-2. Will post a picky the morrow.

The Sontronics looks like a proper LDC capsule. The cheapo looks like a small capsule in a larger housing.

It looks as if the diaphragm is hidden behind a plate with holes in and could be a cheapo electret capsule, but could also be a dynamic as the pic.is not clear.

 

[ecc83]

Yes John, it is surely an electret capsule but I expected no less. Pretty much all the USB mics use them.

The capsule is in fact much bigger than the photo suggests but it is hard to see and virtually impossible to photograph!

The give away is the internals. The non-SM device is surely a FET but there are no special gig Ohm resistors around.

The specc' states an output Z of 1500 Ohms but I suspect this is a misprint? I shall cobble something up to test this.

And yes! It works on the laptop with the supplied XLR-jack cable! This seems to me to be a far better solution than USB? At least you have software control of gain. Mono of course. The cable BTW looks and feels of good quality, 5mm OD. You can never really tell of course until you see the conductors, I shall have the XLR plug of in a day or so which is an unashamed copy of the old Cannon "fiddly screws" XLR.

I am buying two more of these and giving one to son.

Dave.

 

[ecc83]

Son cannot make it till Monday so you will have to put up with my dire widdling.

One mic is a Sontronics STC-2 (not fabuloso by any means but decent enough £150 LDC?) the other is the cheapy. They are hung from a bar about 1foot apart .

The guitar is a Turner (C: £500) 80-00 acoustic played about 18" from the mics.

So, which mic costs seven and half times the other? Left or right? (KA6 AI into HP i3 laptop. DAW Samplitude SE8. )

Dave.

 

[John Willett]

Yes John, it is surely an electret capsule but I expected no less. Pretty much all the USB mics use them.

The capsule is in fact much bigger than the photo suggests but it is hard to see and virtually impossible to photograph!

The give away is the internals. The non-SM device is surely a FET but there are no special gig Ohm resistors around.

The specc' states an output Z of 1500 Ohms but I suspect this is a misprint? I shall cobble something up to test this.

And yes! It works on the laptop with the supplied XLR-jack cable! This seems to me to be a far better solution than USB? At least you have software control of gain. Mono of course. The cable BTW looks and feels of good quality, 5mm OD. You can never really tell of course until you see the conductors, I shall have the XLR plug of in a day or so which is an unashamed copy of the old Cannon "fiddly screws" XLR.

I am buying two more of these and giving one to son.

Dave.

From the picture I saw (and attached) it looks like a small capsule in a large housing.

And if it works with plug-in power from a laptop it must be unbalanced.

 

[ecc83]

"And if it works with plug-in power from a laptop it must be unbalanced." ????

A balanced SM whatever BECOMES unbalanced if the XLR to jack lead is so wired. There is no reason to suppose this mic is unbalanced when feeding an XLR mic input and the noise plot shows no hum so I think that has to be the case.

I can see that such a cheap product will be judged by some to be JUST too good to be true but I really cannot fault it technically. Naturally we have to suspect the motives of the original makers? The term "dumping" comes to mind.

I see nobody has had a stab at picking out the cheapy...Or is my playing just to horrible to tell?!

Dave.

 

[ecc83]

I took a listen to your pickin' (not horrible) and through the OK quality speakers that were hooked to the computer I couldn't hear much of a difference between mics. How is spoken word with the mic if you've tried it?

I like my rabbit even less than my guit'ing! Still, I will set something up after The Madness is over.

Dave.

 

[John Willett]

"And if it works with plug-in power from a laptop it must be unbalanced." ????

A balanced SM whatever BECOMES unbalanced if the XLR to jack lead is so wired. There is no reason to suppose this mic is unbalanced when feeding an XLR mic input and the noise plot shows no hum so I think that has to be the case.

Of course - plug-in power only works with an unbalanced mic. and is done via a 3.5mm jack plug.

A phantom powered mic. would not work at all from plug-in power.