A-B Comparison and some C

A-B Comparison “Aurochs” vs. Rode NT5

To assess the sound quality of the ORTF microphone, I use a pair of Rode NT5s as a reference. The Rode NT5s are widely used and are considered the sweet spot in the price/performance ratio for small condenser microphones.

In my living environment in the center of Berlin, it is almost impossible to create a completely silent room. Some of the background noise is also due to ambient noise from outside. You can hear the sparrows chirping outside in quiet passages.

I connected the microphones to be compared to a Zoom F6. This allows me to measure the quality of the microphones without poor preamps distorting the results. I adjusted the volume of the sound tracks as far as possible and applied my equalizer preset for “Aurochs”. No noise reduction was applied.

Please note that I spoke quietly and sat more than 1 meter away from the microphones. (... and sorry about my blocked nose)

What do you think? I think that the noise floor of both is more or less the same, maybe even a tad less with the “Aurochs”. Nevertheless, the sound is different. The Rode NT5 is said to be more on the treble side. You can clearly hear that here. Bass and lower mids also seem a bit more emphasized on the Rode. It is also possible that the transients of the Rode NT5 are slightly sharper, but not by much. On the other hand, the Aurochs seems a bit more neutral to me, which isn't a bad thing either.

The “Aurochs” ORTF mic holds up well in my opinion. And hey, have you ever seen a pair of Rode NT5s mounted on a smartphone?

C: How NOT to do it

Just for fun, I placed another ORTF microphone without a shockmount directly on the camera and connected it to the camera's microphone input via a TRS cable. I would never do that, but other people might. To avoid disappointment, here is the result as a warning.

All camera noise (I think in this case mainly the IBIS) can reach the mic unhindered. the poor distorting preamps in the camera do the rest.

To get the best out of the microphone, you definitely need a shockmount as well as decent preamps and AD converters.