Review: sE Electronics V7 & V7x

hello and welcome to dark side of the mic today i have in front of me the sc electronics v7x and i thought it would be interesting to compare this microphone to the v7 model that i've had for a while they're both super cardioid dynamic mics that i think offer quite a compelling choice for spoken word applications particularly podcasting so in this recording i'm going directly into my antelope audio xengo via my golden age projects pre-73 preamp kind of rupert nave style preamp so i'll switch back and forth between both of the mic so you get a flavor of the differences and we'll do some comparisons with other mics as well all the audio you hear will be completely unprocessed i'll just normalize it to negative 23 lufs so starting with the v7n i'll say the outside i think this is one of the best dynamic mics you can buy not just on a budget but for any budget after a certain point i think it becomes a subjective choice on your preferences and the sound you're going for but in terms of the basic fundamentals of a good dynamic sound i think there's a lot to admire here and don't start hyperventilating but i think this mic completely wipes the floor with the pod mic from rode in terms of sound quality and if you can get over the fact that it's a handheld dynamic and not a yoke broadcast mount dynamic you should really be buying this every time so looking at both of these s electronics mics then let's go through why i think that is first of all both mics offer a superior extended frequency range the v7 goes from 40 hertz to 19 kilohertz while the v7x goes that little bit further starting at 30 hertz to 19 kilohertz now to put that into some kind of perspective most dynamics even high-end ones tend to fall off much earlier than that so these two mics are getting fairly close to condenser-like performance particularly in the high end thanks to their aluminum voice coils or aluminium voice coils and the neodymium magnets now there might be some of you out there who are saying that while my mic goes from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz does it really though have a look at the frequency response if the lines fall off a cliff at 13 kilohertz then i'm afraid it doesn't go to 20 kilohertz so that's something to be aware of when you're looking at the specs for microphones and if you look at the specs for these sc electronics mics the frequency response does back up the advertised frequency range on the spec sheet secondly and i think this is the most important reason both the v7s offer a really smooth frequency response curve and we'll go into the difference between them in a second but why is this important well put simply a smoother curve is likely to work much better on a range of voices since no particular frequency is over emphasized over boosted this is fairly important for controlling things like sibilance or any harsh sounds that you may find across a range of different voices sibilance doesn't just appear at single frequency point on all voices it generally resides in a fairly broad range and of course that's different too in male or female voices so in my voice for example i generally find i need to cut about four to five kilohertz to control those s sounds but on someone else it might be different if i come across a frequency response with fairly harsh mountain peaks or sharp dips alarm bells just start to ring for me you can be fairly sure that in some maybe a lot of voices that kind of response will over boost unwanted frequencies and as a result it might sound quite harsh or sizzly particularly in the high end so how are the v7s different from each other for me there are two key differences in the frequency response firstly the v7x has a more broad mid-forward presence boost or curve while the v7 has a smooth depth at about 7 kilohertz and i think that's designed to control sibilance particularly in singers but generally it just kind of takes the edge off there in terms of spoken word though i don't really feel the difference in the high end is too significant it might be slightly more punchier on the v7x but both mics sound equally and wonderfully smooth in the high end what i do here though is that the v7x does have significantly more low end especially as you get close to it with the proximity effect and i hope you've been able to hear that as we've switched back and forth between the two now a critical consideration here is that the v7x is primarily designed as an instrument mic it doesn't have anywhere near the plosive protection that the v7 offers there's an excellent video by anton brown on youtube a link in the description down below where he covers different approaches to using the v7x i think mainly from a singing perspective but you'll get the idea for spoken word you need to use a pop filter and i don't think a foam windscreen will really cut it on its own but in a podcast situation where you can set that up in a static position you're not moving about i don't think that's a huge deal breaker so how do these two mics compare to some other dynamic mics let's do some quick comparisons with a quote from jimmy reid's inaugural address as director of the university of glasgow in 1972 for those of you that are interested the transcript was reprinted in full by the new york times afterwards which described it as the greatest speech since president lincoln's gettysburg address so do check it out if you can its relevance nearly 50 years later is really quite incredible so we'll start on the v7 then a rat race is for rats we're not rats we're human beings reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that's happening around you that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardize your chances of promotion and self-advancement and now we're back on the v7x a rat race is for rats we're not rats we're human beings reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that's happening around you that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardize your chances of promotion and self-advancement and now we've moved on to the road procaster a rat race is for rats we're not rats we're human beings reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that's happening around you that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardize your chances of promotion and self-advancement and now we've moved on to the dsb one like in a homemade dynamic mic a rat race is for rats we're not rats we're human beings reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that's happening around you that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardize your chances of promotion and self-advancement and now we've moved over to the shure sm7b a rat race is for rats we're not rats we're human beings reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that's happening around you that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardize your chances of promotion and self-advancement and now we've moved over onto the bayer dynamic m21 tg a rat race is for rats we're not rats we're human beings reject the insidious pressures in society that would blunt your critical faculties to all that's happening around you that would caution silence in the face of injustice lest you jeopardize your chances of promotion and self advancement to finish then we've moved back over to the v7x for some final thoughts i think both of these mics offer a really nice alternative from each other the v7 for me is much more neutral and transparent in my opinion much less coloured if you like while the v7x could be described almost as being more v-shaped more girth in the low end and a little bit more punch up top as well so it really depends on the sound you're going for you need to be able to deal with the plosives on the v7x and even using a pop filter you still need to be careful i'm pretty sure in fact i know a few have creeped through in this recording today so that's something you need to bear in mind but when you consider you can get both of these mics for less than the cost of one road procaster which sounds to me pretty much identical if not very close in between the two in terms of sound signature i think that makes these two mics an incredible bargain okay so that about wraps up today and don't worry you don't have to throw your pod mics into the bin if you're happy with them then that's fantastic otherwise they'll make excellent door stops take care and we'll see you next time

Channel: The Dark Side of the Mic

Views: 7,573

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Id: VgqZBg3kaJs

Length: 9min 28sec (568 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 18 2021