MKH Story

The MKh STory
Page 8
Frequency response of the MKH 800 (red) compared to other
studio microphones.
The sensitivity of the MKH 800 is up to 20 dB higher beyond 20 kHz.
Third-octave spectrum of a symphonic orchestra
The sound emission continues until 40 kHz with only a slight decrease; a
steeper roll-off only occurs above 50 kHz.
The multi-pattern microphone MKH 800
The MKH 80 was launched in 1993 as the first MKH with switchable patterns (omnidirectional,
wide cardioid, cardioid, super-cardioid and figure-of-eight). It was replaced in 2000 by the
MKH 800 as the first MKH with an extended frequency response of up to more than 50 kHz. Both
microphones incorporate a twin capsule with two symmetrical push-pull transducers. A new
design avoided the disadvantages of common dual-diaphragm transducers. It is well-known
that the cardioid or super-cardioid pat terns of these transducers get wider at low frequencies
and thus may cause undesirable bass emphasis in reverberant environments. The MKH twin
capsule incorporates additional acoustic inputs that stabilise the directional characteristics
at low frequencies. So the field of applications is remarkably extended. As ambient sound is
recorded neutrally these microphones are also well-suited as spot microphones, allowing a
high degree of reinforcement without introducing degrading sound colourations.
The extended high-frequency response of the MKH 800 is Sennheiser’s contribution to the
improvements of digital recording technology due to higher sampling rates that extend the
audio frequency range by at least one octave at high frequencies. In order to benefit from
this improvement, an adequate extension of the microphone response is desirable. Previous
investigations had revealed that the sound emission of musical instruments continues above
20 kHz with a steeper roll-off beyond 50 kHz. Thus the frequency response of the MKH 800
was extended to more than 50 kHz.
The twin-capsule of the MKH 80, due to its acoustic properties, was well suited for this
extension and did not require any changes to the basic design. So the extension of the
frequency response only needed some changes to the electronic equalisation circuit. The
resulting extraordinarily fast impulse response also set a new milestone for improved tonal
resolution.
Though it is still debatable whether frequencies above 20 kHz are exploitable by human
hearing, this extended frequency range should not really be filtered out. With the MKH 800
and high sample frequency recording, the sound engineer can be sure he is on the safe side.