DPA KIT-4060-OC-SMK 4060 Stereo Microphone Kit

I'm a sound artist and field recordist. The DPA 4060's are among my most used set of microphones. And they are my preferred lavalier microphone.

The DPA 4060's are very natural sounding and have a superb amount of detail . I don't use them too much as a typical lavalier microphone, as in on the lapel or in the hair to capture the voice of somebody. However, when I do use them like that they do a brilliant job. Capturing the voice cleanly, with all the info one might need for further post processing.

However, I mostly use my 4060's as a stereo pair for field recording. I put them in an AB setup 36-40cm apart. They are great for capturing ambiances. You get very detailed soundscapes, very natural sounding, with all the spatial and frequency info you'd want. And they are ideal for lightweight setups. They pack down very small for a stereo setup I usually tape them in the trees and leave the recorder in a dry bag for overnight drops. I use brown windjammers so they are camouflages very well. If I need to use them in very windy conditions, I just put them in a rode blimp.

The DPA's are very resistant to dust and humidity, which is what you want as a field recordist. The cable is quite strong, and I have not had problems with it so far.

Their small size also means you can put them in nooks, crannies and holes to discover sounds and acoustics you would normally not have access to. (eg. an ants nest) So you can get adventurous while recording.

I found that when you first purchase them they do need a bit of a walk in period: in the beginning the mics are very bright, almost to much so, but after using them for a week or 3, they get to their normal natural sound. I've been using my oldest pair for almost 10 years now, and they still work great.

To me these are the best sounding stereo pair for field recording under a 1000€. I wholeheartedly recommend them.

For most people, most situations, and even for me, these are not necessary, but they are an appreciable step up from other good products.

I use lavaliers mainly for podcast interviews 'on the run' and have been pretty happy with the Rode lavs (about half the price of these). I wanted to do some location sound/field recording and so wanted lower self-noise microphones that I could use as a stereo pair. I could of course have used the Rodes but would have been limited to noisier topics. The low self-noise and clarity of the sound (with a touch of warmth to my ears) is really noticeable.

The unexpected benefit has been in using them for interviews. The thin cable has made placement and rustle less problematic, and the quality via a d:vice into an iphone is good enough that I don't need to carry the mix-pre with me for one on one interviews.

As I said, for my own use they are a bit of a luxury and other lavaliers are available! However, with the d:vice they really made sense as a portable, high-quality and great-sounding podcasting setup.

With the microdot into the d:vice they feel solid. When the microdot is attached to the XLR adaptor (so I can feed into the mixpre) the resulting 'franken-connector' is rather long and feels like something you would not want to abuse.