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Published on 07/19/11 at 22:41
The Sennheiser E 902 is supposed to be Sennheiser's successor to the very nice and interesting E 602. The E 902 is intended primarily for use with a kick drum, although Sennheiser advertises it, like the E 602 as a "bass instrument" microphone. I am quite sure that it will work well on bass cabinets, but it was not an application that I got around to testing it on. This review will, consequentially, cover their use on kick drums.
The Sennheiser E 902 is a dynamic microphone specifically designed to be used with bass instruments, so it will get utilized mostly on kick drums. It has a cardioid pick up pattern, which is nice, because if it gets placed in the hole of a kick drum, it will pick up some of the boominess in the kick. It has a bass-heavy frequency response from 20 Hz all the way to a respectably high 18,000 Hz.
The E 902 has a stand mount built right onto the microphone, and this resulted in considerably less hassle in setting it up inside of the hole. This mechanism is a markedly noticeable improvement over the E 602.
In my review of the E 602 II, I mentioned how the E 602 II seems to magically fix low end kick drums that had a tendency to sound boxy. In keeping true with the fact that it is a higher end microphone, the E 902 does not have this compensation built into the curve. The E 902 will make a good kick sound good, and a bad kick will continue to sound bad, so it is not a magical solution to a bad kick like the E 602 seemed to be. This particular microphone from Sennheiser tends to be very clean, very honest about the sound it imparts.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the E 902 more than the E 602, but they are differently colored. The E 902 is not designed to compensate for any bad bass signals like the E 602 is not only engineered to do, but is also advertised to do. Do your research before you buy anything, and you'll have a great kick in no time!
The Sennheiser E 902 is a dynamic microphone specifically designed to be used with bass instruments, so it will get utilized mostly on kick drums. It has a cardioid pick up pattern, which is nice, because if it gets placed in the hole of a kick drum, it will pick up some of the boominess in the kick. It has a bass-heavy frequency response from 20 Hz all the way to a respectably high 18,000 Hz.
The E 902 has a stand mount built right onto the microphone, and this resulted in considerably less hassle in setting it up inside of the hole. This mechanism is a markedly noticeable improvement over the E 602.
In my review of the E 602 II, I mentioned how the E 602 II seems to magically fix low end kick drums that had a tendency to sound boxy. In keeping true with the fact that it is a higher end microphone, the E 902 does not have this compensation built into the curve. The E 902 will make a good kick sound good, and a bad kick will continue to sound bad, so it is not a magical solution to a bad kick like the E 602 seemed to be. This particular microphone from Sennheiser tends to be very clean, very honest about the sound it imparts.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the E 902 more than the E 602, but they are differently colored. The E 902 is not designed to compensate for any bad bass signals like the E 602 is not only engineered to do, but is also advertised to do. Do your research before you buy anything, and you'll have a great kick in no time!