Another Sennheiser 416 question

[DavidDay]

What is different about the MKH 416 P48 vs the MKH*416*T-F, other than the issue of phantom power? With an adaptor for power, would they sound the same or are there other differences? Thanks!

[Rob Ellis]

I had a T-powered Sennheiser 415 until recently (went back to the 416 P48). It was the predecessor to the 416.

It had a slightly warmer sound than the 416 and maybe a little less output and punch, and
a slightly wider pickup pattern than the 416.

The 416T I am not sure about, but have heard that the output is slightly lower (though not problematic) and it has more of a "sheen" than the 416 P48 but the same off-axis rejection.

If you can't get the info you need here, you might try Gearslutz.com - Powered by vBulletin

[jsgilbert]

Phantom powering consists of direct current applied equally through the two signal lines of a balanced audio connector (in modern equipment, usually an XLR connector). The supply voltage is referenced to the ground pin of the connector (= pin 1 of an XLR), which normally is connected to the cable shield or a ground wire in the cable or both. When phantom powering was introduced, one of its advantages was that the same type of balanced, shielded microphone cable that studios were already using for dynamic microphones could be used for condenser microphones as well, in contrast to vacuum-tube microphones, which required special, multi-conductor cables of various kinds.
With phantom power, the supply voltage is effectively invisible to balanced microphones that do not use it: e.g. most dynamic microphones. A balanced signal consists only of the differences in voltage between two signal lines; phantom powering places the same DC voltage on both signal lines of a balanced connection. This is in marked contrast to another, slightly earlier method of powering known as "parallel powering" or "T-powering" (from the German term Tonaderspeisung), in which DC was overlaid directly onto the signal in differential mode. Connecting a dynamic microphone (especially a ribbon microphone) to an input that had parallel powering enabled could very well damage the microphone severely, but this is not normally so with phantom powering unless the cables are defective or wired incorrectly. (from Wikipedia)

Specifically, the F designation in Sennheiser 416 TF stood for flat and meant there as no or little rise throughout the microphone frequencies. Many microphones feature a 2db gain betwen 4k and 7k.

To confuse matters even more, not all phantom power supplies provide a full 48 volts and few phantom powered mics need the full 48 volts. Perfromance of some m ics can suffer though if not paired with an appropriate phantom power supply. The converters you can purchase for the 416 and 416t are step up and step down voltage convertors.

pickup patterns can vary considerably even among microphones of the very same make and manufacturer, which is why stero pairs are almost always sold together, to ensure they are similarly matched from the factory.

Here are some links regarding phantom power:

Phantom Power Explained

Phantom Power

Phantom power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Mike Sommer]

To confuse matters even more, not all phantom power supplies provide a full 48 volts and few phantom powered mics need the full 48 volts. Perfromance of some m ics can suffer though if not paired with an appropriate phantom power supply.

This is very true. Some microphones can work on little as 15 volts. Other can show performance problems if
power falls below 24 volts.