Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony ECM-DS70P Electret Condenser Stereo Microphone

I purchased the Shure ECM-DS70P for use with my portable DAT machine. It does a good job of recording, nice frequency range, and good stereo, and a great price. The one drawback is that touching the mic or even the cord while recording imparts a very loud noise on the tape. Since there is no shock mount for this mic, I would suggest mounting it where it cannot be touched.

As a choir director, I have been looking for years to find a small, simple to set up, microphone and recorder. Cassette boom boxes used to be so useful in the "old days" to help the choir hear themselves. Now that I have used the Sony Electret Condenser microphone with my Sharp mini disk, I can say my search is over.

There is excellent quality with the full range of dynamics from the quietest to the loudest moments. There is outstanding stereo separation giving the sound of the actual theater. The digital quality was just fine to make CD's of the Christmas concert for members to enjoy in the future.

It is so sensitive that it does pick up the sound of the recorder so you must use the small extention cord and set it away from the recorder. I just put in into a tabletop microphone stand and put it on the edge of the stage. Be sure to put it on a thick piece of carpet since it will pick up the stage sounds of any walking - or even the director moving back and forth.

I strongly recommend the Sony Stereo Electret Condenser Microphone.

This mic works great in almost any situation -- unless you're an operatic soprano. It can't handle the top notes and gets blown out and distorted -- and exactly on your "money notes" that are critical to recordings! If you aren't singing above the staff or are singing pop or are recording sounds or speaking voice, it is an incredible mic.

I bought this microphone to go with one of Sony's MiniDisc recorders. It is VERY sensative. This can, of course, be a good thing - or bad.
Plugging the mic directly into the recorder (without the extension) is not worth much because it picks up so much sound from the unit itself - very distracting. So, one must use the included extension to move it away from the unit.
The mic is also very sensative to movement (similar to wind noise) so one really needs to just set it in an out-of-the-way location and leave it.
Even turnig the volume on the unit down (which operates similar to a mics "gain" level) leaves the unit very (you guessed it...) sensative to nearby noise.
I guess ideally I wish the two mics weren't quite so omnidirectional.

I've been using mine with excellent results for 4 years now. I find the stereo separation acceptable under most circumstances. I use Sony MZ R700, R900, and MZ N1, and I can't tell one from the others under most recordings. It CAN be overloaded/distorted, but I've only found that in cases of really bad room acoustics and loud enough to be uncomfortable and distort even my listening. I've never been caught, as the whole rig can be set to "all green but hold final count" status before entering the venue, and then easily hidden as intermission lights come up. Only complaints are that there is no (known) windscreen available, and the clip is not really up to the task, and easily lost. I made a replacement with a paper clip and an alligator clip. Elsewise, this mike has been the single consistent tool in my mission to preserve live music shows. All of which are folk & alt.country.