In this article we’re reviewing the AKG P420 condenser mic. Let’s start by talking about the build quality of this microphone.
Build Quality
When it comes to the build quality nothing really stands out as amazing or bad. It’s just straight and more simply a common mic.
It also has a good amount of weight to it. On the front of the microphone you will find a single polar pattern selection switch to switch between cardioid omnidirectional then on the back of the microphone you got a high pass filter man which rolls off frequencies around 300 Hertz at 12 decibels per octave and it has a -20 decibel pad.
Features & Specifications
As far as the specifications, this thing has a cardioid omnidirectional and bi-directional polar pattern, a frequency response of 20 Hertz to 20 kilohertz, a sensitivity of around negative 31 decibels and output impedance which is less than 200 ohms, a max SPL of 135 to 155 decibels, a self noise level of 15 DBA, a signal-to-noise ratio of 79 DBA and a phantom power requirement of +48 volts.
PROS & CONS
Lets have a look at the PROS and CONS of this microphone.
PROS
In all honesty AKG P420 microphone just doesn’t stand out too much to us but we guess in terms of pros this thing doesn’t really color the audio that much all the way around to 90 degrees and it also has a pretty nice build quality as well as a nice shock mount in a really nice storage box.
CONS
In terms of cons, the 15 DBA noise floor on this mic is definitely not ideal if you’re looking at it for professional applications and also the bi-directional and omnidirectional polar patterns have a significantly quieter sensitivity.
Overall Thought
As far as our overall thoughts on this microphone, on the electric guitar I think it sounded a little bit loose in the lower frequency so if you need your recording to sound really tight we wouldn’t really recommend it there. The acoustic guitar on the other hand was a completely different story where it offered a really nice articulate top end and a nice full low end which we rather liked then for singing it does have a good amount of clarity to it but it leans ever so slightly towards being sibling and a little bit airy. But, on the good side it does have a really flat mid section which we are personally a very big fan of.
Conclusion
Lastly for spoken-word AKG P420 microphone does have a very bright tone focusing on the more breathy and airy frequencies but it does have a more subtle change from the flat mid section to the treble and air frequencies when compared to something like the P220 or the P120.
We recommend this microphone well for music. We do think it would be OK for that because you don’t have to worry too much about the self noise because that will likely get buried in your instrumentation. So, if you do like the tone sure go forward it’s fun to have the extra polar patterns to play around with if you’re doing duets or you need to record some gang vocals for your hardcore band or something but personally it just didn’t blow us away for that use case.
So, we personally probably wouldn’t be selecting this microphone for our personal music studio but then on the other hand, for professional voice-over work we don’t think the 15 DBA self-noise is going to be usable for you. You may end up getting pushback from your clients saying there’s just too much of a noise floor in your recordings and then if you’re a gamer or a podcaster I think we’ve drilled this home about a thousand times by now.
You can have a look at our in-depth guides if you’re looking to get Microphone For YouTube, Gaming or Streaming Microphone or a Wireless Microphone.
We don’t necessarily recommend condenser microphones unless you have a fully treated room and a quiet keyboard and mouse and all of that stuff.
We hope our article would’ve have been helpful in getting the information you might have been searching for.
If you have any concern or question, feel free to leave a comment down below.
Editor's Review
Summary
Reviewed Keeping In View Build Quality, Features & Specifications etc.
