Which handheld mic is a better choice?

[Rodney Morris]

I can’t respond to “which is better…?”, but I’ve been using the RE50 for a long time now. It works very well. Most of the time I do not use a windscreen with it, even outdoors on a windy day. It’s a fairly bullet-proof mic. I haven’t used the Beyer so I’m not saying it won’t do these things also, but the RE50 is probably the more popular hand-held mic of choice among ENG sound mixers.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Bill Davis]

Having used both extensively I can say with some authority that there is NO significant qualitative audio difference. If you’d be happy with A – you’ll be happy with B.

I think the RE-50 looks a bit retro these days – and the the Beyer is somewhat sleeker and more modern in design – but that’s splitting hairs and someone could argue exactly the opposite since it’s a taste thing.

They are both excellent, workhorse dynamic interview mics.

Maybe you should make your selection based on whether you’d like to uber-micro-fractionally change the balance of payments between either the US and Japan or the US and Germany?

There’s nothing to HEAR in the choice – either way.

[Brian Reynolds]

Another 2 mics that might be worth a look at are the Shure SM63 and Shure VP64.
The SM63 is VERY light in weight but robust and ideal for news / eng work. Have even used them cyclonic condions with a foam pop screen with amazing results. The only negative for the SM63 is that borded jurnos tend to unscrew the base waiting for crosses breaking the internal wires, a few drops of “locktite” when you first get the mic fixes this from happening.
The VP64 seems good but the mic weight is about the same as the RE50 but more modern in styling, and is a nice “balanced” size/ shape when using mic logo cubes

The difference between Knowledge and Wisdom is… Knowledge is the knowing of facts…. Wisdom is the sensible application of good quality knowledge…

[Richard Kuenneke]

I like my Sennheiser MD 46 Cardioid handhelds. I like cardioid because it doesn’t capture as much background noise as an omni directional. It looks fantastic too.

Rich