Today I’m guiding assisting a local church in securing some replacement cables and protective caps for their Countryman E6 & E6i mic elements. I previous designed and installed the PA systems in their building.
Most miniature condensor mics have some sort of cap. In this case the protective caps not only keep debris out of the element but also offer different frequency responses depending on which one you use. When looking at the images below note that the flat cap is the shortest and the most extreme HF boost is the longest cap. Considering that the cap slides onto the element housing and we have a glimpse of how very small changes near a mic can have dramatic results. Who would think that the amount of cap housing behind the mic tip would have this effect?
Miniature omni mics (if capped with a flat frequency cap) could easily be used for audio measurements. Some industry standard miniature omni mics include the DPA 4061 (which also has various cap options that affect the frequency response), Sennheiser MKE2 Gold and the Countryman B3 & B6 (both offering caps that affect the frequency response). You wouldn’t want use these mics via a wireless beltpack but if you have a way to get the mic signal wired up, no reason you couldn’t use them for audio measurements. Especially if you can compare them with a known measurement mic.
Countryman E6 protective cap – webpage
Here is some relevant information taken from the PDF manual.
