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1. Countryman Isomax 4RF M4HP5RF18EB 2. CAD/Astatic 905R 3. Earthworks FM500 4. AKG CK49
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Audix Micropod6S
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5. Sennheiser ME36 6. Electro-Voice Polar Choice PC Plus-12 7. Audio-Technica U857QU 8. Shure MX412D/S
Contrary to what it may seem, not all of us work at large, contemporary churches where everyone on stage is on a wireless ear-worn mic. The lectern, with its gooseneck microphone, is still alive and well and used in many facilities today.
In this article, we're taking a quick look at a number of gooseneck microphones. The sanctuary of Green Level Baptist church in Cary, NC was the test environment for this review. Green Level Baptist's building is about 100 years old, with an aging sound system that was installed to support voice and choir. Hard-backed pews, wood-paneled ceiling and walls with no acoustical treatment, and the lectern position being directly below the center speaker cluster create a challenging acoustical environment for a microphone meant to pick up the spoken word at a distance, and this church has struggled to find a lectern mic that works well for them. We tried out all the mics on a Saturday afternoon using both a female and male voice; neither people speaking are professional speakers, and used their normal talking voice levels—a more realistic environment for a typical church where lay members of the congregation may speak during a service or event and rarely project their voice.
For each mic, we started with a flat EQ, and then tweaked the EQ and raised the gain until we got the strongest signal with the best balance between sound quality and gain before feedback. The audio console used was a Mackie SR32, an older analog board that has been in service at the church for at least a decade with a basic channel EQ system that includes a high boost/cut; mid-range boost/cut with adjustable center frequency; and a low boost/cut. All comments are based upon what we experienced using the sound system in this sanctuary. In all cases, we had the high-pass filter switch turned on, and all SPL measurements were taken A-weighted.
Most of these microphones gave us far better results than the lectern mic currently installed at our test site.
Many thanks to Pastor Richard Leader, tech team members Tommy Griffis and Scott Sabin, and our speaking talent Bryan Watson and Sheri Penland for the use of Green Level's facility and their assistance in the evaluation of the microphones.
Countryman Isomax 4RF M4HP5RF18EB
This is the 18-inch hypercardioid pickup pattern version of their gooseneck microphone. It provided strong gain before feedback, giving us about 68 dB SPL on our male voice, and 66 dB SPL on our female voice. We cut the highs by -6 dB and did not need to touch the mid- or low-frequency EQ. The sound we obtained was very natural.
MSRP: $450
Audio-Technica U857QU
The U857Q is a 14-inch cardioid pattern gooseneck microphone. It did well with our male voice from a volume perspective, providing 68 dB SPL before feedback. We were able to obtain 60 dB SPL with our female voice. This mic had a somewhat stronger low-end response, and we needed to cut the low-mids and lows a bit. The clarity of speech was good, with a nice crispness to the sound. We cut the highs by -4.5 dB; the mids by -6 dB @ 150 Hz; and the lows by -4 dB.
MSRP: $337
Earthworks FM500
The FM500 is a 19-inch gooseneck microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern. We found that in our room, the FM500 had a little bit of a “muddiness” to the sound, and the sibilance in voices was accented. We had a difficult time getting the volume we wanted without also getting ringing as well. A fully parametric EQ would undoubtedly help with this. We were able to get 60 dB SPL out of our male voice, and 58 dB SPL from our female voice.
MSRP: $699
Shure MX412D/S
The lectern, with its gooseneck microphone, is still alive and well and used in many facilities today.
The Shure MX412D/S is a supercardioid gooseneck mic, 12-inches in length. (We received the desktop base version, but the mic capsule is the same as the lectern version). The sound was pretty natural, with a slight accent on the highs and a slight amount of muddiness to the overall sound. We were able to get 61 dB SPL on our male voice, and 59 dB SPL on our female voice.
MSRP: $431
AKG CK49
The AKG gooseneck mic is a modular system, letting you pick the base, gooseneck and capsule segments separately to create the complete mic system. The nice part about this is you could actually buy different length gooseneck segments and use the one that best fits your speakers for a specific service for the best performance.
We specifically received the CK49 shotgun capsule (MSRP $349); the GN30M 30-cm (~12 inch) gooseneck module (MSRP $139); and the PAE M 3-pin XLR phantom power adapter (MSRP $79).
Sound quality on this system was excellent for our female voice, and we obtained a SPL of 60 dB. Our male voice sounded very good, and we hit an SPL of 62 dB with him. For EQ settings, we needed to drop the highs by -5 dB, the mids by -3 dB @ 175 Hz, and the lows by -5.5dB.
MSRP: $567 total
Sennheiser ME36
The Sennheiser product is also a modular system, with the gooseneck/XLR connector separate from the capsule. It came with the ME36 shotgun capsule (MSRP $299) and the MZH 3015 15 cm (6 inch) gooseneck ($149). The MZH 3015 is a very short gooseneck when you consider that almost half the length is the XLR connector, which can be a good choice for a room with reasonable acoustical characteristics and where aesthetics are important. Or when you have a pastor that likes to swat away gooseneck mics that extend out in front of one's face.
We found the ME36 to have reasonable sound quality, especially for a mic that ends up at least double if not triple the distance from the speaker's mouth. One down side is that being so short, it's significantly closer to the surface of the lectern, especially with our lectern having a raised section in front of the mic socket for the speaker's notes. In our situation it picked up a lot of the sound of manipulating paper like the speaker's notes or changing pages in a bible.
We EQ'ed the mic at -5.5 dB on the highs, -4 dB @ 200 Hz for the mids, and -4 for the lows. For our male voice, we were able to get 61 dB SPL, and for our female voice we obtained 58 dB SPL.
MSRP: $448
CAD/Astatic 905R
The 905R is a miniature shotgun mic on a short gooseneck segment with an overall length of 10 inches. The gooseneck section itself is only about one inch long, which made it a little less flexible in the bend angle it would retain—it tended to want to straighten out a little on us.
We found this mic to be far more susceptible to feedback, and we had to play with the settings a lot more to get a usable gain-before-feedback level. We were able to get 58 dB SPL out of our male voice, and 56 dB SPL out of our female voice. If we had our male voice lean in a bit to where he was more equal in distance to a longer gooseneck mic, we were able to get 62 dB SPL from him.
Our EQ settings were -5 dB on the highs; -5 dB @ 200 Hz at the mids, and -7 dB for the lows.
MSRP: $199
Audix Micropod6S
The Audix M1255B is a 6-inch gooseneck with a M1255S Shotgun capsule installed. It performed well, providing a reasonably natural tonal quality while delivering a decent amount of power for our two speakers. With our male voice we were able to get 64 dB SPL from the mic, and with our female voice we obtained 62 dB SPL.
We EQ'ed the mic at -5 dB on the highs; -5 dB @ 160 Hz for the mids, and -4 dB on the lows.
MSRP: $390
Electro-Voice Polar Choice PC Plus-12
The Polar Plus series from Electro-Voice (EV) is unique in that it lets you select the polar pattern electronically yourself. The one mic gives you the option of omnidirectional, cardioid, supercardioid and hypercardioid. We chose the hypercardioid pattern for this facility. And while it comes with an XLR plug build into its base, this bottom plate can be removed and the base screwed directly into the mounting surface, with instruction on how to hard-wire it into a cable in your lectern. The base of this mic also comes with a mute button as well, which may or may not be a good idea depending on the personality of your on-stage speaking talent. While it might be possible to connect a taser to the mute button, this is not an EV-supported configuration and would likely void the warranty. (insert smiley face indicating humor here.) There are versions available that do not include this base with mute button.
The Polar Choice has a very sensitive high end, but when EQ'ed gave us a nice, rich vocal tone, and intelligibility for both our male and female voice was excellent. We obtained 60 dB SPL on our male voice, and 62 dB on our female voice. The mic was EQ'ed with the highs at -12 dB; the mids at -5 dB @ 500 Hz; and the lows at -7 dB.
MSRP: $442
Summary
One thing learned from the process of doing this review is lectern microphones vary radically in tonal quality and response. You could take the mic that performed the best in our room and have a completely different experience in your own, and visa-versa. Finding a dealer who can provide an on-site test of the mic you think would work best would be an excellent idea before making a non-returnable purchase.
