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Ratings |
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0 Back to the drawing board |
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* Poor |
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** Fair |
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*** Average |
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**** Good |
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***** Very Good |
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****** Excellent |
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Technology **** |
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Sonic Performance ***** |
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Perceived Durability ****** |
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Component Quality ***** |
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Value for the $ **** |
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Warranty *** |
Until recently, in North America at least, Beyerdynamic has been best known in the professional audio market for studio and broadcast headphones that were brutally accurate with great isolation. That is all about to change if it has not already. The new Opus series of microphones are built for the harshest of environments where only a select few dare tread and survive - the live sound touring world.
The Opus series is made up of five models of which the first three will be covered in this review. There is the Opus 69 vocal and general purpose dynamic hypercardioid, the Opus 81 vocal condenser cardioid, the Opus 65 kick drum and bass dynamic supercardioid, the Opus 51 piano and kick drum boundary mic and lastly, the Opus 83 overhead condenser. Most manufacturers and distributors place their emphasis on sales of vocal microphones as these represent the largest volume of sales. However, the vast majority of professional sound reinforcement companies have an abundance of vocal mics in inventory and if there is a weakness, it will usually be with the specialty mic inventory like the overheads and boundary types. As the remainder of this review will indicate, the Beyerdynamic Opus microphones are serious contenders in a very competitive market and I wish we had been able to review the Opus 51 and 83 as these products would be of interest to a great many pro users.
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Published Specifications |
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Frequency response @ 10 cm 15-18,000 Hz |
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@ 1m 40- 16,000 Hz |
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