sE Electronics, a company founded in the early 2000s, has slowly created a new standard in the production of microphones, namely high quality at a not exorbitant price. Clearly the debate is very heated: can a microphone made by a Chinese company, and which costs relatively little, sound decent? Well, the answer is… at the end of our article.
sE8 a first look
Let's move on to analyze this new product in detail; a matched pair of sE8.
The package already looks very good, very solid metal case, with inside two clips for the microphones, two wind-screens and a stereo bar of excellent workmanship, something not so obvious to find in matched pairs. The construction of the two microphones is also pretty sturdy. There are also two three-position switches, a low cut with location 80-0-160 and a attenuator with locations -10db, 0, -20db.
Technical features
Analyzing the specifications provided by the company, the technical details show that we are facing a non-low-profile product. For this series, sE Electronics has limited for now (we do not know if there will be any developments in the future) to make only cardioid polar shape capsules, unlike series such as the sE2a which allowed greater flexibility.
The capsule, made by hand, has a SPL di 139db in place 0 on the attenuator, with a dynamic range that settles on 126db e 81db of signal / noise ratio.
The frequency response, relying on the graph inside the package, is practically linear, except for a slight boost of 2db between 6 and 8khz.
Test
We tested this pair of microphones in the most diverse configurations. The tests took place at the Play Music Studio, which had a matched pair of Octava Mk012, direct rivals of the sE8, also given the same price range, and a pair of sE2a.
We were able to test these microphones on acoustic guitars, as overhead of a battery, on a acoustic piano and on one orchestral recording.
Below you will find all the samples that we deemed necessary to publish, both single and compared with Oktava.
Compared to the microphones of the Russian company, it was first necessary to work with gain, since, by adjusting the gain of the preamps of the Focusrite Red 8pre that we had available, it was very evident that at the same value the sE8s had a much higher "hit" than the Oktava, so to make the test reliable, it was necessary to rebalance by lowering the gain of the sE8 by 6 points.
On a detailed listening to all the sources recorded, the feeling is that the sE8s have a good boost on the mid-low range, perhaps a little excessive on some occasions, but very useful on others. This characteristic is not evident from the frequency response provided by the company, which does not indicate any emphasis in that area. In the medium-high range, on the other hand, they are very sharp and absolutely not annoying on the very highs, indeed with a remarkable softness.
On the acoustic guitar, one Taylor GS Mini, we placed the microphones in A / B configuration, using the supplied stereo bar at a distance of about 20cm from the source. Also for the battery overheads we used an A / B configuration, albeit wider, thus not using the supplied stereo bar, positioning them at a height of about 2m from the ground.
Analyzing, for example, the result on the drum kit, we can still see a very homogeneous recovery of the entire kit, that slight boost on the 200hz it provided a more “loaded” and, in our opinion, more pleasant snare than the Oktavas, while, on the contrary, this emphasis made the acoustic Taylor sound a little more than it should have. Nothing unsolvable with a municipality EQ.
For Piano recordings, a Yamaha C7, the sE8s were used in the configuration X / Y just above the hammers, giving a good response on the attack of the instrument, useful recording to be associated with further microphones (in our case a pair of AKG 414 in A / B along the tail of the piano).
As regards instead the orchestral recordings, it was a training of 11 items (flute, 2 first violins, 2 second violins, 2 violas, 2 celli, 1 double bass): in this case the sE8 were positions in configuration X/Y about 1mt in height from the position of the director. Also on this occasion, the microphones performed very well, returning a good separation of each instrument and effectively guaranteeing what was the stereo panorama.
Conclusions
This new series of narrow diaphragm microphones from sE Electronics has proven to be well-made, giving their best in ambient shooting. As for the spot miking of individual instruments, listening to our samples, it turns out that perhaps that slight boost in range medium-low could create some headaches in the process species.
In our view these new ones SE8 they are however a step forward compared to the previous series that we have had the opportunity to test. For example, the old sE2a, used in stereophonic technique, showed some gray areas, while in this case the results in the test phase were clearly superior.
However, we are faced with a product that, as the British would say, is "bang for the buck", that is, it is truly remarkable for the price at which it is offered (we are talking about a figure that is between 380 and 400 euro for the couple). The price is slightly higher than the Octava Mk012 or to Red NT5 but I believe that those 40-50 euros more still allow us to have, in addition to a really solid metal case, a stereo bar and two wind-screens not present in the matched pairs of other companies, a fairly interesting stamp.
Acoustic guitar - Stefano Turin
Model - Taylor GS Mini
Acoustic Drums - John Fasano
Model - Yamaha Power V Special 1992, Formula 14 × 4,5 Snare Drum
Photos
Antonietta Memoli, Cristina Pellegrino
Studio
Play Music Studio - Cava de'Tirreni
Italian distributor: Midiware
Audio Demo
SE8
Oktava Drums
sE8 GTR
Oktava GTR
