Suspension from trusses is pretty much the only way to get good quality mics on a church choir without a forest of mic stands blocking the view of the platform. Even then, some mics are better than others for suspension, for both audio quality and aesthetic reasons. Nobody wants a big fat large diaphragm condenser mic dangling over the heads of the choir. The solution is miniaturization, but making mics smaller can have a negative impact on audio performance. DPA has introduced its 4098H Hanging Supercardioid Microphone to provide a solution that is not only small and visually unobtrusive, but that delivers excellent audio quality. I have reviewed other DPA mics in the past, and my default experience in doing so has amounted to true enjoyment and the desire to keep the evaluation mics. I evaluated a pair of the 4098Hs and the tradition continued-I found myself not wanting to return these either.
The 4098H is 154mm in length, 10mm in diameter, and weighs in at 5g. It ships with a foam windscreen, and removing that windscreen exposes the cylindrical capsule-long due to its shotgun topology, presumably a traditional multi-port phase-shift network to achieve the mic's supercardioid pattern. The mic features an easily adjustable 95mm gooseneck to get the mic positioned precisely in the direction it's supposed to be. The mic ships with a very thin cable with MicroDot connectors on each end, and it's available in both black and white.
Digging into the technical specs, this mic looks very good on paper, leading me to conclude that it must sound pretty good (which it does). It's a pre-polarized pressure-gradient mic with a supercardioid pattern. The overall diameter of the mic's enclosure is 10mm, housing a capsule 5.4mm in diameter. This makes for a pretty small diaphragm, but the mic's low-frequency response does not suffer a lot for it. Its overall range is 20 Hz-20 kHz. Its frequency performance ±2 dB (at 20cm) ranges from 80 Hz to 15 kHz, so it's not the first choice for double bass, but for its recommended applications, this low-end response is just fine.
It also exhibits a diffuse field boost of 3 dB from 8 kHz to 15 kHz. As a matter of fact, right at 15kHz the boost is more like 4dB, according to DPA's trace. This is a nice, welcome enhancement to the "air" frequencies, and the ramp up to 15 kHz imparts a nice crispness to the response. I'll offer a little more in regard to the subjective particulars a bit later.
The mic's A-weighted equivalent noise is a low 23 dB (re. 20µPa) so you're going to have to be listening pretty hard to hear this one when you turn it on. The A-weighted signal-to-noise ratio is 71 dB (re. 1 kHz at 1Pa(94 dB SPL). Total harmonic distortion is rated at less than 1% up to 123 dB SPL peak and less than 1% with a 120 dB SPL (RMS) sine wave. Maximum SPL before clipping is 134 dB, and for most applications (typically used for choirs), this loudness handling is more than sufficient. The dynamic range of the mic is published at 100 dB. The mic's output impedance is 30-40? directly from its MicroDot connector, and when used with the DAD6001 XLR adapter, the impedance is 100?. When using the DAD6001 adapter, a cable of up to 300m can be driven, the signal is balanced, and the common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) is greater than 60 dB from 50 Hz to 15 kHz. The mic also requires 48VDC (±4V) phantom power.
Although the 4098H is intended primarily as a choir mic, I was inexorably tempted to find out how it performed in other applications. In my experience, DPA mics can really shine in applications other than those for which they're primarily intended. These mics were put through their paces in a diversity of applications, but mainly focused on the human voice. (Special thanks to Phoenix-area church audio professional John Sloterbeek, who helped me in this endeavor.)
Starting with vocals, these mics delivered a very obvious and unmistakable stereo image, due to their directionality. I would otherwise use two key words to describe these mics-crisp and accurate. The bump in frequency response above 8 kHz lends to that crispness, but I should be very clear-they are not brittle. That's what's so impressive-anybody can artificially pump up the high-end response, but these mics capture tremendous resolution in the high end, and it translates as clarity without harshness. Frankly, I would be strongly tempted to use a 4098H as a principal vocal mic in the studio for female or upper range male vocals (the roll-off below 80 Hz precludes them for basses or baritones.) The resolution rivals many large-diaphragm condensers I've used in the studio.
The mic is also excellent on guitar and piano. In particular with the latter of the two, the mic's extended dynamic range captures all the subtle nuances of the performance. The pianist was so impressed with the reproduction he had to be coerced from the piano. I also recorded percussion instruments with these mics, and was very impressed with the spot-on brightness that helped these instruments cut through the mix without any equalization. The mics were introduced to applications where other mics were used historically, and across the board, the presence and body of every instrument and vocal were vastly better than with the mic typically used.
Most importantly, however, these mics shine brightest when used for the application for which they're intended-vocals. The signal they capture is rich and full, but also clearly defined and accurate. They're excellent for their intended use as suspended choir mics-small, unobtrusive, and easily placed and directed toward their subject.
The DPA 4098H is an excellent microphone that captures a true, accurate, and round signal. While it's strongly recommended for suspended choir applications, I can also recommend, just as strongly, using the mic for any number of instrumental applications.
