THE MICROPHONE MAZE
Got a question for ya: What do the Watergate tapes and Woodstock have in common? The answer? Microphones. Every one of us, every day, uses some kind of a microphone. Usually, and in the vast majority of cases, it is the microphone in the telephone receiver that we use.
THE MICROPHONE MAZE
EXTENSION CHORDS
by Allen Hester
Got a question for ya: What do the Watergate tapes and Woodstock have in common? The answer? Microphones. Every one of us, every day, uses some kind of a microphone. Usually, and in the vast majority of cases, it is the microphone in the telephone receiver that we use. When we watch a television newscast, or listen to a radio, we are listening to voices that are speaking into some kind of microphone. And yet, even though the microphone, in all its variations and permutations, is as common as Kleenex, people still are confused about what microphones do, how they work, and why some of them cost $19.95 and others cost in the hundreds of dollars.
Basically, a microphone is a transducer, an energy converter. Microphones convert acoustical energy to electrical energy. This conversion can be achieved in a variety of ways, but for our purpose here all we need to be concerned with are two kinds of mikes: Dynamic and Condenser.