Which microphone is better — condenser or dynamic

In a pro­fes­sion­al envi­ron­ment, dynam­ic and con­denser micro­phones are con­sid­ered the most pop­u­lar today. Each of these types of audio devices has its own char­ac­ter­is­tics and an excel­lent mech­a­nism for con­vert­ing sounds into elec­tri­cal sig­nals. Which type of micro­phone is bet­ter — dynam­ic or, nev­er­the­less, con­denser? These issues were dis­cussed by our experts.

Features of dynamic microphones

The diaphragm of this audio device is pre­sent­ed in the form of a thin plas­tic film that vibrates. This film is plat­ed with nickel/gold and fixed next to a fixed plate made of a con­duc­tive mate­r­i­al. An elec­tric field is cre­at­ed between the plate and the diaphragm using an exter­nal source or an elec­trect mate­r­i­al locat­ed direct­ly in the micro­phone.

In the first case, we are talk­ing about phan­tom pow­er or an elec­tric bat­tery, which allow you to apply a polar­iz­ing volt­age to the diaphragm. In the sec­ond case, a polar­ized mate­r­i­al (elec­tri­cal) is placed in the inner plate or diaphragm. Under the influ­ence of a sound wave, the diaphragm moves, chang­ing the capac­i­ty of the air cham­ber, which serves as a sep­a­ra­tor between the diaphragm and the plate.

Dynam­ic micro­phones come in a vari­ety of shapes and sizes, from very small to large-diaphragm mod­els. By the way, the design of the prod­uct in ques­tion plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in the sound of the device. For exam­ple, a large diaphragm will pro­vide a deep, smooth sound, allow­ing you to cre­ate the per­fect vocal repro­duc­tion. This is the best option for brass instru­ments and bass drums.

Gen­er­al­ly, dynam­ic micro­phones are appre­ci­at­ed for their dura­bil­i­ty, prac­ti­cal­i­ty of oper­a­tion and puri­ty of sound repro­duc­tion. But such prod­ucts also have their weak points: fre­quen­cy range and high sen­si­tiv­i­ty. Man­u­fac­tur­ers of dynam­ic audio prod­ucts are strug­gling with these unpleas­ant moments with all their might: in recent years, the short­com­ings have been min­i­mized.

Features of condenser microphones

Con­denser micro­phones have a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent type of trans­duc­er. Most mod­els of this audio device are a com­bi­na­tion of a fixed rear pan­el and a mov­able front pan­el, fixed at a cer­tain dis­tance from each oth­er. When sound hits the front pan­el, it vibrates, cre­at­ing a small capac­i­tive change that turns into an elec­tri­cal charge. True, it is very small and requires the action of a cer­tain ampli­fi­er.

Accord­ing­ly, a capac­i­tor-type prod­uct requires a large num­ber of elec­tri­cal cir­cuits to cre­ate an audio record­ing. And for such manip­u­la­tions, of course, a pow­er source is required.

Con­denser micro­phones have been used for many years. The tech­nol­o­gy of oper­a­tion of such audio devices is very sim­ple: in the process of mov­ing the diaphragm, the dis­tance between it and the fixed plate changes, the result­ing capac­i­tive change cre­ates an elec­tric charge. Con­denser micro­phones are high­ly sen­si­tive, mak­ing them ide­al for cap­tur­ing all kinds of sounds, includ­ing those out­side the fre­quen­cy range acces­si­ble to the human ear.

Prod­ucts with larg­er capac­i­tors should be cho­sen when vocal record­ings are planned, while small­er diam­e­ters are bet­ter suit­ed for pre­cise record­ings. By the way, it is con­denser-type micro­phones that are built into mobile devices, com­put­ers, and even in some car mod­els.

Comparative characteristics

In gen­er­al, the choice of a cer­tain type of device depends main­ly on pref­er­ence and, in some cas­es, on the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the work­ing con­di­tions. In gen­er­al, con­denser micro­phones are still the pre­ferred choice of most. But, for exam­ple, for adverse weath­er con­di­tions, you can’t imag­ine a bet­ter dynam­ic one. To sim­pli­fy the process of choos­ing the right option, we have pre­pared a com­par­a­tive descrip­tion of the two types of prod­ucts.