Superlux S502MKII

De Superlux S502MKII is duidelijk een verbeterde versie van de eerdere uitvoering. Lage eigenruis, prima frequentiebereik en een fraai stereobeeld zijn belangrijke kenmerken. Wel is de microfoon érg gevoelig voor luchtstromen, de bijgeleverde plofkapjes doen misschien iets maar dempen het effect van wind of 'plosives' onvoldoende.
In meerdere reviews lees ik problemen met 'piep' geluiden. Zelf ervaar ik dit absoluut niet. Mogelijk heeft de kwaliteit van de fantoomvoeding hier een belangrijke invloed, zeker 'switched mode power supplies' hebben vaak als nadeel dat ze geen 'schone' fantoomvoeding produceren.

This microphone is a great hassle free way to record sound with pleasant ORTF stereo image, requiring minimal setup. At this price point, I'm tempted to get two of these to make dual ORTF quad surround recordings.

Pros:
- Clean sound with low noise floor
- Sensitive, picks up quiet ambience too
- Quick to set up, since the mic distance and angles are ready and set for ORTF
- Good value for money

Cons:
- Sensitive to wind, even the slightest breeze will cause huge bass blows. The wind foams it comes with don't help much - you'll need to get third party wind bubbles for proper protection if you intend to use this outdoors
- Very sensitive to RF interference noise, so it's mostly unsuitable for recording anything with electric transformers or smartphones nearby - you'll get RF tones into the recordings. It's great for nature recordings, and indoor recordings (without electronics nearby), though.
- Comes with a poor and short 5-pin XLR cable, you'll need to get your own
- The supplied shock mount is minimally viable but does the job in a static rig

This si kind of product that you have to try to believe. Improvement is evident in every aspect of this little gem from previous model. Noise is lower, freq. line is moved more to the linearity and of course price is very competitive. Warm recommendation to all who wants to investigate stereo recording options out of regular xy...quality is evident and my only remark goes to included cable but easily corrected by ordering longer and better Y stereo cable (item number: 280888) right here at Thomann! Of course, elivery was on time and perfectly packed for transport.

This is a really low price for a great sounding and convenient microphone. Setting up ORTF with separate mics is a bit of a pain unless you have a decent stereo bar. The only other option for a ready-to-go ORTF stereo mic is a Schoeps for more than €3k. I have used this on piano but will also use it to record small ensembles, choirs, duos, trios etc.
Compared to Neumann KM184s, this has a tiny bit more noise and a tiny bit less in the low and high frequency range, but hardly anything that could justify the €1000 price difference.
ORTF spacing and angle is accurate. The capsules seem to have a tighter polar pattern than the Neumann KM184s, giving this a more distinct stereo image.
To justify the low price, it comes in a fairly nasty, though serviceable plastic case filled with packing grade foam. No hand-crafted wooden case, but it works. Superlux could do with coming up with an improvement of their super-cheap looking logo.
As others have noted, this comes with a hilariously short 5-pin XLR to 2x3 pin XLR cable. Obviously the intention is that you always connect standard XLRs as extensions, but it would have been nice if this was a 2m cable so that short connections could be completed without the need for additional cables.
Buy it!
Mic clip is fine.
One thing that has been noted about this microphone and which I can confirm is a sensitivity to RF interference. Having my jacket containing my mobile phone close to it caused the familiar clicking interference so watch out for this. Maybe this is something Superlux could address in the MkIII.