Technical Description - DPA 4011-TL User Manual

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

The cartridge
Directional microphones Type 4011-TL, 4012, 4015-TL and 4016 use
a 19 mm diameter prepolarised pressure gradient condenser-micro-
phone cartridge. Type 4011-TL and 4012 offer a first order cardioid
pick-up pattern, the Type 4015-TL and 4016 offer a wide cardioid pat-
tern (see Fig. 1 & 2). The diaphragm is highly resistant to the most
aggressive kinds of humidity. The large spacing between the
diaphragm and the back plate in this cartridge makes the micro-
phone highly insensitive to temperature influence and allows the cap-
sule to handle greater sound pressure levels.
Type 4011-TL and 4012 are designed to have a linear on-axis response
from 40 Hz to 20 kHz (± 2dB) measured at 30 cm (see Fig. 3). Type
4015-TL and 4016 are designed to have a linear on-axis response from
40 Hz (±2 dB) to 20 kHz (+3/-1dB) measured at 60 cm (see Fig. 4) and
are furthermore intentionally calibrated with a slight high-frequency
soft boost.
Great attention has also been paid to the microphone's natural
sounding off-axis performance during the design process (see Fig. 3
& 4). The diaphragm is protected from dust by an acoustically trans-
parent net behind the front protection grid and inside the back port
of the cartridge. For optimum stability the microphone cartridge has
undergone a special pre-aging process, which stabilizes all tensions in
the materials as well as the polarisation voltage.
The preamplifiers
The 4011-TL and 4015-TL are 48 V phantom powered, whereas the
4012 and 4016 are powered with 130 V via the DPA Type HMA5000
high-voltage Microphone Amplifier. The 4011-TL and 4015-TL are
transformerless and impedance balanced and have a standard 3-pin
XLR-connector (see Fig. 5 for pin designation). They feature a 20 dB
attenuator push-switch built into the connector (see Fig. 6). When
the button is pushed in, the output is attenuated 20 dB. The attenu-
ation allows the microphones to be used for close-miking high SPL
sound sources without overloading the console input amplifier from
the output of the microphone. The 4012 and 4016 have a modified 4-
pin XLR-connector (see Fig. 7 for pin designation).
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