Electro-Voice RE15, Grampian DP4/L, Pleiades V6

Another microphone that sounds breathtakingly when connected to Pleiades V6 is the Electro-Voice RE-15.


How could it not. It is one of the best microphones on the planet.


Signal path, setup:


Male singing voice 2in to 8in - Electro-Voice RE15, Tennessee, low cut on - Pleiades V6 prepreamp - Sony TC-D5 Pro - Sennheiser HD580


This mic is like a vacuum cleaner of voice. It sucks the voice with no bass heaviness and only a little HF ambience is heard in noisy environments.


The input transformer of the Pleiades V6 is a 1:10 with 140mH primary inductance. The 150ohm RE-15 and 140mH make a high pass filter (Pleiades filter) so that the RE15 can be used more than usually closer with no bass heaviness at all.


With same settings it sounds louder than the Grampian DP4/L as the latter is 25ohms only.


But increasing the gain on the Sony the very low hiss is not different.


A difference is that ambience sounds full spectrum on the DP4 whereas HF heavy on the RE15. This is expected since the first is pressure, and the latter is pressure gradient exhibiting some proximity effect even if it is variable D.


For the same ambience the DP4 had to be used closer and it sounds fine this way too.


The RE15 was more clean and the DP4 somewhat more aggressive. It cannot be decided which is better, it depends on the type of song.


Perhaps the edge is from the aluminum? diaphragm of the Grampian.


Or the fact that the broad diaphragm reasonant frequency of the RE15 is in the mid low band since it is moving coil directional. Whereas the broad diaphragm reasonant frequency of the DP4 is in the mid band since it is moving coil pressure. Are the classic polar pattern adjustable classic condencer microphones mid broad band tuned too since each element is directional and electrostatic? Membrane reasonant frequencies are explained in the references.


The Pleiades V6 pre preamplifier or head amplifier magnifies the subtlest detail these magnificent microphones are capable of extracting.


Reference:


Pleiades V6 schematic - euroelectron


Microphones - Borwick


Microphones - Boré, Peus - Neumann


Microphones - Lou Burroughs - Electro-Voice


High Quality Sound Production and Reproduction - Hadden - BBC