Sennheiser MKE 400 review: A phone-friendly mic for content creators
Our Verdict
The Sennheiser MKE 400 isn't only a clean-sounding, nicely compact shotgun mic; with its smartphone support and like shooting fish in a barrel setup, even inexperienced users can become quality recordings.
For
- Compact blueprint
- Piece of cake to use, including with phones
- Respectable sound quality
Confronting
- Basic controls
- Can exist susceptible to wind noise
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Sennheiser MKE 400 isn't just a make clean-sounding, nicely compact shotgun mic; with its smartphone support and easy setup, even inexperienced users can become quality recordings.
Pros
- +
Compact pattern
- +
Piece of cake to utilize, including with phones
- +
Respectable sound quality
Cons
- -
Basic controls
- -
Tin be susceptible to wind racket
The Sennheiser MKE 400 is a shotgun microphone designed to slot into the hot shoe mounts of DSLR cameras. This new, 2nd-gen model looks and sounds like a serious piece of "prosumer" gear, just more casual video shooters needn't expect away: the MKE 400 likewise has a simplistic side that can drastically heave the quality of smartphone camera clips.
Sennheiser MKE 400 specs
Connexion: 3.5mm TRS/TRRS
Ports: iii.5mm headphone out
Condensers: ane
Directional patterns: Super cardioid
Size: 5 x 2.6 x 1.5 inches
Weight: 3.three ounces
While the most aggressive of aspiring videographers won't find it a complete recording solution, the MKE 400 could still exist one of the best microphones for apprentice video recording. Our total Sennheiser MKE 400 review will explicate why.
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Sennheiser MKE 400 review: Toll and availability
- The MKE 400 is priced at $199
- Check multiple retailers if sold out
The MKE 400 is neither astoundingly inexpensive nor prohibitively expensive for a compact shotgun microphone. At $199 it'due south also priced identically to the original MKE 400; you can tell the two apart past the newer version's shorter mic and more indigestible shape.
Sennheiser sells the MKE 400 directly, but is currently sold out. You can grab it from Amazon or B&H instead, for the same price.
Sennheiser MKE 400 review: Design
- Lite and compact
- Limited controls, but easy to utilize
Unlike boom mics, shotgun mics like the MKE 400 are intended to affix to the top of your camera for like shooting fish in a barrel handling. To that end, Sennheiser has kept the MKE 400 appreciably small-scale and calorie-free. It's plasticky, simply doesn't feel brittle or insubstantial, and I similar how the iii.5mm mic output has moved from the rear to the front. This prevents the detachable cablevision from dangling in front of your camera or phone display.
Speaking of phones, you'll need to buy a case or stand with a photographic camera-style hot shoe to mountain the MKE 400, only otherwise it's incredibly mobile-friendly. In add-on to the standard 3.5mm TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) cable for DSLR and mirrorless cameras, there's a TRRS (tip/ring/ring/sleeve) cable specifically for your smartphone's headphone jack.
Only plug this in — or use an adapter if your phone lacks a headphone jack — and you lot can get started. An motorcar-power characteristic makes things even simpler, as while the MKE 400 has a power button, it will turn itself on whenever it'south plugged in and volition plow itself off upon disconnection.
The integrated controls are pretty basic, but offering at least some recording flexibility. There's a gain switch to optionally add or cutting out 20 decibels, forth with a low cut filter, which promises to remove unwanted low-frequency sounds. This could exist noises similar nearby cars, or just the vibrations from handling the MKE 400 while recording.
On the reverse side of the casing is one of the new MKE 400'southward big additions: a headphone jack for mic monitoring, then you can hear how your footage will sound as you shoot it. Along with its 8-stride volume rocker, the headphone jack is very helpful when y'all're filming anything other than yourself, and makes this version of a MKE 400 considerably more than applied than its predecessor.
The MKE 400 solely employs a supercardioid recording pattern, meaning information technology mainly records within a narrow space directly in front end of the mic. However, this pattern also picks upward sounds directly behind the mic too, and so you lot'll need to be mindful of where the MKE 400'south rear is pointing just as much as its forepart.
Sennheiser MKE 400 review: Sound quality
- Practiced voice communication clarity
- Stiff directional effect
- Windshield partially effective
Indoors, the MKE 400 produces crisp, clear spoken communication, every bit you'd want and await. Provided the MKE 400 is correctly pointed at the speaker, its recordings prioritize their vox over any background noise, and keeps incidental sounds like clothes-rustling to a minimum.
There was a pleasantly huge difference between using my phone'due south own microphone and the MKE 400. My Google Pixel 4a mic is no slouch at recording oral communication but too picked upward unwanted sounds like human foot-tapping, a consequence of its less focused directional recording. The MKE 400 didn't just provide improve overall clarity just picked up far fewer unwanted sounds, and recorded less reverb indoors too.
For vlogging and travelogues, the MKE 400 will assist produce sufficiently make clean recordings
Outdoors, groundwork sounds like traffic and the occasional screaming kid were conspicuously audible with the low cut filter off, but were kept to a minimum with it switched on. They weren't entirely eliminated, though, then you should probably stick to lavalier mics if you just want to record a presenter'south vocalization in busy areas. Still, for vlogging and travelogues, the MKE 400 volition help produce sufficiently clean recordings.
The MKE 400 is resistant to calorie-free wind, even without the delightfully fluffy windshield you go far the box. Notwithstanding, when the weather gets truly blustery, y'all'll be glad to have this accompaniment. It doesn't completely cake wind noise in these tough weather condition, merely at least reduces information technology to a depression hum that yous can easily speak over. The low cut filter helps likewise, as does leaving the gain switch at 0.
The MKE 400's shock resistance also impressed me. Handling mics while they're recording is a good way to add together a bunch of random knocking and fumbling sounds, but I could pick upwards the MKE 400 by its base and wave it around without whatever audible rustling. That was true fifty-fifty when the low cut filter was switched off.
Recordings maintain a very strong left/correct separation as well, so it's piece of cake to tell where individual sound sources are in a scene.
Sennheiser MKE 400 review: Verdict
A device similar the MKE 400, with its eagerness to work with smartphones, risks potentially bad-mannered positioning. It's not quite professional person-level, merely might also expect like an unnecessary luxury for everyday phone usage.
Even so, information technology does manage to find a comfortable centre footing, and will serve as a great little mic for DIY content creation. If yous're vlogging or streaming, the MKE 400 will comfortably deliver the sound quality you need, and will do so without taking up much infinite in your pocketbook or enervating three years of moving picture schoolhouse to operate. Indeed, it doesn't fifty-fifty crave a conventional camera.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/sennheiser-mke-400
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