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anonymous 6 February 2005

Is this done with a sound source and a spectrum analyzer? Or just by ear? How similar is matched?

TIA

RR

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Guest Sun, 02/06/2005 - 11:02

matched pair

Most companies run audio freq. tests on the indiviual mics and or speakers. Speakers can come as a matched pair also.
The term matched pair means that their output is closer to matching the other matched component.
Hope you are following this......For instance if a company makes 150 mic's a day, and you go to buy 2 of them, wouldn't you want them both to sound the same? Of course
What if they sounded the same BUT one of the mics is louder than the other, soooooo in turn you would have to set the pre amps and everything else differently just to make their output the same.
Hence the term "matched pair". So what they do is test all the mic's and record the information on paper (computer whatever) then before they sell them they put 2 of them that have the same test result numbers together.
Hope this helps!!!!!!! :D

ghellquist Sun, 02/06/2005 - 11:58

Now, I believe this really is different from company to company.

Just three short variations.

At some companies, no names mentioned, they seem to have a janitor doing the matching. He looks at the mics and sorts them according to the color of the text screened on the mic. Really dark ones in one corner becomes one matched set, another in a different corner becomes another matched set. There is a variation on this where any two sequently numbered mics are put in the same box and are called matched, no tests beeing done anyway.

At some companies, they take a few days worth of mics produced and measure them carefully by sending sound to them and measure them carefully with carefully aligned measurement equipment. The pair that comes closest becomes a matched pair. After that they get their serial numbers engraved.

One company, Neumann, says they simply take any two mics and put them in the box and calls them matched (read the forum on their home page). All mics are manufactured, according to them, to so close tolerances that they all are matched. The matched set concept for them is simply a marketing thing, if the mics where not close enough to specification they would not leave the factory.

Now, I guess the first one is worth avoiding.

Gunnar

anonymous Sun, 02/06/2005 - 22:06

Yeah, i was afraid of that. I've heard, don't know if it's true, that a pair of, say, octava mk012's from GC might not be matched as well as a pair from the sound room. This sounded strange because I would think that matching would be done at the factory, as opposed to a store like GC. maybe GC treats them as described regarding Neumann above... guess I'll have to try and get specific about that with whoever I buy from, or at least the manufacturer.

I was hoping to hear there was some strict industry standard that "matched" meant similar to within a tenth of a dB at any given frequency, being done with a calibrated sound source and really expensive audio spectrum analyzer... yeah right ;)

thanks...

RR

anonymous Mon, 02/07/2005 - 10:22

There is a website (I can't remember the name) but they offer "matched pairs" of mics like the Oktava as well as other mics like Schoeps, Neumann, and a bunch of others.

According to the site they test all of the mics themselves for "sameness" or whatever you want to call it so supposedly you're getting the best match that you can find. Of course they could just be buying mics from Guitar Center, Marking them up and then selling them back to the public as a matched pair. I'm not sure, I don't work there.

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