Customer Reviews

Crown Sound Grabber II PZM Condenser Microphone

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These mics work well once you remove the mini-phono plug and install another similar plug. The design problem is that the shield is NOT connected to the metal case (ground). Nor is it connected to either side in the mic itself. If you carefully cut the plug plastic away with a razor blade, you can see the problem, but the end solution is to just replace the plug. If you use it without rewiring, it will be OK in places that have low AC noise, but will hum in most real recording environments. Given the way the plug is built and that 2 out of the 2 I ordered were identical, I suspect ALL of these units have this problem.

I have read reviews on this unit in the past that say it is junk, and I suspect this wiring flaw has been around for the life of this device, hence why the poor professional reviews. Once rewired, it works well - still is a non-balanced cable and therefore in high noise-field environments, it will not compete with professional grade equipment, but for recording of choirs or wide-stage omni-directional uses, it works well. I use them for opera recordings on small stages with good results.

Excellent, fast service. The Sound-Grabber-II Conference Microphone is exactly what we needed for recording meetings. No problem transcribing. Can hear everything on the tape.

We use this microphone for recording National Board teacher candidates and their classes. The sound is clear and the cord is long so you can move around a classroom easily. It's easy to use and does the job!

Other reviewers gave this mic low marks due to poor sound quality. Indeed, it was pretty bad. I was looking (and still am) for a good omnidirectional mic for use with a Cisco 9951 phone. But the sound quality was too bad, so I am sending the mic back. I also plugged it into a laptop and had similar results.

The Sound Grabber-II is a low priced alternative to Crown's outstanding PZM line of professional microphones. This was a wonderful addition to my video kit for weddings and other recording projects. These units capture sound much like the human ear. 180 degree hemispherical pickup without distance sensitivity. My recordings capture the vows that can barely be heard as well as the amplified music and speakers. I highly recommend this as an under $80 sound reinforcement microphone.

I bought one of these for use with a camcorder that has a stereo tip-ring-sleeve input. This microphone uses a 1/8" (3.5mm) mono plug and so when plugging it into the camcorder, the sleeve and ring contacts both hit the plug's sleeve, grounding out the right channel, causing hum, and confusing the automatic level control.

This is not the microphone's fault. But it's a common enough application I thought I'd mention the potential problem.

My solution (which may not work for everyone) was to cut off the supplied plug and replace it with a solder-on stereo plug from Radio Shack, connecting the red signal wire to *both* the tip and ring, and connecting both the white ground and shield braid to the sleeve.

The "paddle" is removable -- in fact, you have to remove it to install the battery. This may be an aesthetic convenience if installing them on a wall, but I'd be worried about the narrow microphone body flopping over from an accidental tug on the cord if on a table. (I suppose you could tape it down).

I bought the grabber expecting the microphone would do a better job of picking up audio than my camcorder alone.

I compared the audio pickup with my camcorder with no sound grabber installed to camcorder with the sound grabber fully installed into my microphone input.

Note I used all sorts of configurations, flat plate on, flat plate off, mic turned toward the people, mic turned away from the people. The bottom line the sound grabber did not grab any more audio than the camcorder itself..in fact the camcorder microphone picked up more audio than the grabber.

So if you are expecting this grabber to grab more sound than your camcorder alone ...you are going to be disappointed and you will be out 80 bucks...too expensive and certainly not worth it !