Folks,

People often ask which affordable microphones I recommend for measuring their room. To answer this question I tested ten popular microphones ranging from an inexpensive DIY model to a Josephson with Microtech Gefell capsule costing $1,800, and wrote up the results for this article: Comparison of Ten Measuring Microphones. Enjoy!

--Ethan

Hi Ethan,

I really appreciate your effort but have some comments:

Distortions
You measured every mic only at one level. It would be helpful to see if and how the frequency response changes depending on a change of input level.
A mic for acoustic measurements must be capable of showing the correct absolute level. Relative measurements are even possible with a dynamic mic. But we're talking about variations as small as possible. Any uncalibrated mic will produce wrong measurements (even the most expensive ones). So a real measuring device comes with a calibration device. This is what makes that kind of mics expensive.

Long term stability
Electret mics like the Behringer are cheap but don't perform good when it comes to long term stability. This is another factor that makes mics for acoustic measurements expensive.

Characteristics
You should clearly state that those directional mics like the one's from RadioShack should be used for limited relative measurements only. I would recommend not to use them at all.

Best, Markus

Thanks for your comments Markus, and hopefully people will see from the graphs that the RS meter is not very good.

--Ethan

Another $$ saver, thank you Ethan. I especially appreciate the Room EQ tip.

Regards,
Shaun

Does anyone know of any good updated versions of these microphones?

A lot of these are no longer available.

Really enjoyed the article though.

Which microphones are you interested in? The Behringer is popular and available, and the Nady is available too for $10 less. At the higher end the DPA 4090 is available, and any of the "tiny diaphragm" Earthworks models will be excellent.

--Ethan