#45 How to get the best microphone for your ham radio shack with Bob Heil

I wonder how many tabs he dropped back in the 70's?

 

More likely weed, him and Jim Gamble! sorry that was for the tabs post!

 

I've been using Bob's mikes for years...primarily the HM-10 with HC5 element. I could not get it to drive my Icom 7610 so I bought the ICM mike...works great.

 

And did I say, very affordable!

 

I could only listen to three minutes of this Heil microphone advertisement, er ... I meant informational video. The audio quality on Heil's end of the broadcast was nothing shy of terrible. It's actually hilarious, considering the topic of this thread. It's like Bill Gates and his on-stage BSoD moments.

Amen x2!

You two gents will definitely appreciate what Craig Street has to say in this brief video about ribbon mics and minimal processing in recording.

 

One does not need an expensive microphone to reproduce a mere 2700 Hz audio and RF bandwidth sporting 1-10 total harmonic distortion. I doubt my radio can hear or transmit more than that on sideband, and only little more on AM. I think virtually any decent hand held vocal microphone can sound good,and provide linear response, over the limited frequency range used in ham radio. A great many vocal microphones have a similar slight rise in the human speech frequency spectrum, which is why they are used as vocal microphones. A recording studio is a very different environment from the typical ham shack, calling for a different type of microphone. Most hams can easily rewire a microphone to reverse phase, but I doubt microphone phase matters in any substantial way after the audio is processed into RF. And I simply do not believe all the engineers at all those other companies are as naieve as Bob suggests. It is ludicrous to suggest he is alone in considering the effects of reversed phasing.

I previously posted a link to sound files comparing multiple $15 microphones with a HEIL product costing ten times more, so others could judge my assessment for themselves, but it was sumarily removed without explanation. Perhaps I am in the minority daring to disagree with ol' Bob, believing I do not need an expensive studio quality microphone for my transceiver, and thinking my $15 Superlux ECO-88 sounds so close to the expensive one, nobody can tell the difference on the air.

Ultimately, I am not persuaded by anything said during the interview. Of course, that is just MY take ... your mileage may vary. K8JHR

 

Interesting how that works, eh? Where did you post those links? On the Zed?

 

The same for me. I don't beleive in COVID restrictions in not answering bunch of e-mails...

 

What is interesting to me is not that the audio quality in the recorded video of Bob Heil is poor, but that the video producer accepted the poor audio and uploaded this video for us to scrutinize. Maybe the producer doesn’t like Heil mics? Lol.

 

I was hoping perhaps that someone in management would see the thread comments and take action. Six phone calls, four voicemails, and mutliple emails have gotten nothing back but silence or auto-response messages. I try to support small businesses whenever possible, and have been patient with them due to COVID, but this is getting ridiculous.

The vendor sees this as the manufacturer's problem, so here I sit with my shiny new $300 PRo-7 collecting dust. One of my decisions in going with Heil was the reported great customer service, right now I'm just not seeing the love. I would write it off as a loss if it was a $20 part, but a $300 premium headset with a full warranty is another matter.

From the Heil Audio Website: " Our company founder, Bob Heil believes that “it all starts at the microphone.” Well, what happens if, on a rare occasion, the microphone…”stops?” At Heil Sound we are just as passionate about service, after-sale care, and warranty as we are about selling you new products"

 

Did you purchase direct from Heil or from a dealer?

BBB lists Heil Sound "A-" with 0 complaints: https://www.bbb.org/us/il/fairview-...strument-store/heil-sound-ltd-0734-1000017721

 

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Hi Jeff - Here are the "missing" links. You be the judge!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvtkl6b3xq3bwax/Heil 6 way test 1.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6juxrbqlvyfcbxd/Heil 4way test 1.mp3?dl=0


(QRZ.com, says my original message got lost, not deleted.) /K8JHR /

 

HEIL HM-10XD
Outstanding audio reports. Antenna 25 feet from the shack. With 1kw no RFI issues. Logged into a 20 meter net today. Under poor propagation conditions the narrow setting on the HM-10 XD I was able to be heard and got logged into the 20 meter net. The microphone is a Heil. Don't settle for less.
W9GDH

 

Thanks, James! All six sound virtually identical to my 68 year old, less-than-golden ears (years ago they might have been silver-at-best) - though the playback used here doesn't exactly lend itself to critical discernment of subtle nuances.

Mic 1,2, and 4 sound virtually identical. Mic 3 was markedly different - sounded like some low-mids emphasis/boost. Care to reveal the identities?

"Got lost", eh? At least the dog didn't eat the message...

73, Jeff

 

ouch. Hurt my ears.