Robin L
Master Contributor
We are drifting from the OP. The original question:I don’t understand this business about mic limiting dynamic range (if I have this right). Some certainly do not and are made for exactly these applications.
Rock bands use close-mic’d drums, electric bass and guitar, horns, etc. They have no problem with the dynamic range and the “stamp” they put on the sound is often by design because the instrument either doesn’t need it or sounds better when mixed with other amplified instruments, like bass roll off or a little presence boost. Some can be quite flat though, depends on the application.
One of the most popular studio and live mics is the Shure SM57. I found this, and having recorded with this mic regularly, I believe it!
“On a practical level, there is virtually no limit to the high sound pressure levels (SPL) the SM57 can handle. That’s right, no sound is too loud for it. The first frequency range to distort is around 100Hz at 150dB SPL. That is louder than a jet engine. At 20kHz, the SM57 can theoretically handle around 190dB SPL. Don’t try this or you’ll become deaf!”
https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/...hures-sm57-became-the-worlds-go-to-microphone
Are there any speakers that output sound essentially indistinguishable from a live performance?
The original question is about speakers, a kind of transducer. My point is that the initial bottleneck is in the other critical transducer, the microphone. This thread drifted off to concerns with performance of microphones at the loud end of the dynamic scale. There is no functional use for a microphone that is capable of working with a 190db signal, that kind of level is not used in music for the obvious reason that it would instantly cause deafness, that is a red herring. I know from Shure SM57/58 microphones, have used them a lot. Don't believe the hype. Yes, it can take a very loud signal, but SM57/58s also have a very easily noticed sound signature, one that does not sound like live, unamplified music. The issue, for me, is the coloration of transducers, all transducers, all microphones, all speakers. What goes in is never equal to what goes out. The dynamic range is not how loud can it go, speakers and microphones can go pretty loud. The issues are those of coloration [all transducers have resonances, they cannot be entirely designed out] and dynamic range, including self noise, which would also include the self-noise of the microphone preamp and recorder. What happens at the bottom of the dynamic scale is just as important as the upper limits of the dynamic range. DPA microphones do have a wide dynamic range, but they are not completely transparent. Those Shure dynamic microphones are not even close to transparent. For some, as they are used to the sound of a "Live" performance via amplification, the point may be moot. But the gold standard is the "absolute sound", unamplified music. Transducers will always color sound, there are no recordings, microphones or speakers that are indistinguishable from a live performance of unamplified, acoustic music. And [one more time] most recordings try to get as far away from the sound of "reality" as possible.