Cheap boundary mic from Samson

farss wrote on 8/29/2005, 8:07 AM
Saw one of these things at SMPTE and as they're pretty cheap after some difficulty I finally got one, AUD 169 and it, well works!
I chose the omni version, you can also get a 'half omni' which maybe better if you were to have two to cover long board room tables.
Thing looks OK, about the size of a beer coaster, thin, long lead with mini XLR into mic and regular XLR into whatever. Needs phantom power though.
I doubt it's anywhere near as good as the Sennheiser or AKG units but at a fraction of the price I'm not complaining and as it's only purpose is to be unobtrusive and get what's being said it seems adequate.
I'll give a further evaluation once I've used it in the line of fire.
Bob.

Comments

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 8/29/2005, 10:54 AM
Are there any batt powered versions of this? It would work great to just set and forget record at the dinner table at a wedding reception to pick up what's being said to the happy couple.

Dave
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 8/29/2005, 11:24 AM
Well, I just ordered the SamsonCM11B omni directional boundry michere for getting the audio at the table for the bride and groom, and possilby as a mic placed near them on the stage during the wedding (depending on the stage) bought a SdirectBox that is supposed to power it too located here.

Should be intersting - hope it works :)

Dave
farss wrote on 8/29/2005, 2:38 PM
Should be OK, let us know how it goes. I was told Samson also have a small transmitter that'll plug into the mic and provide power to it. Haven't been able to check that out so far.
Just be aware, the thing is VERY omni, if you get what I mean.
Actually I am a little worried about one thing, it looks too much like beer coaster :)
Bob.
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 8/29/2005, 6:56 PM
depending on what size / thikness it is, I may end up "adjusting the color" by talking off the metal cover and painting it and the base white ( could also help the thing from slipping on a table that's slick too ) (just would have to make sure not to do it in a way that would wreck it :)

Dave
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 9/1/2005, 7:31 AM
Mic looks Great - just the idiot at SAMASH that said that the Sdirect - powered Direct box would do what I needed that needs to have his head checked out. boundry mic comes with 30' mini XLR - XLR male the Sdirect only ouputs XLR - but he said that I would be able to input XLR and output 1/4" - 1/8" cable into my mini recorder (going to try offering this as an extra to ppl. Get a CD recording of all the best wishes ppl. said to you while you were at the table etc...)

Now I have to get another regular direct box just for this weekend so that I can put the XLR in to the non powered box and out via 1/4" and then in via 1/4" in the "Sdirect" and power it there, and then out the 1/4" on the "Sdirect and into the 1/8" for my mini recorder.

After this I'm just going to get a battery powered phantom power supply and run it to that via XLR and then just buy a cable that's XLR to mini and hope that there's no hum :)

Dave
farss wrote on 11/25/2005, 5:27 AM
Just thought I'd mention that I'll be giving this mic it's first outing tomorrow night to get some sound off the stage of dancers. I've tried this mic at home in the middle of a table and while it's nowhere near as good as micing everyone individually it doesn't pickup much echo, it's visually unobtrusive and in general just gets the job done without breaking the bank at around USD 100.
I'd imagine it's nowhere near as good as the Crown but then again it's a fraction of the price!
Seems to me one of these would be a very usefull cheap addition to the average kit.

Bob.