Sennheiser MKE440 Hands-on Review - Head to head with RODE and Azden 

When watching the part with the 10 foot distance I just realised how much the world has changed over the 4 last years. This kind of shoot seems to be the new norm in 2021... Thanks for sharing the video - Martin

Thanks for revealing new mic I've never head about before - the Azden SMX-30 which is exactly what I was looking for - the stereo and mono mic in one.

Super helpful review and comparison 💚 Definitely each mic is useful for particular scenarios. I wish the azden's stereo quality was compared equally to the other two mics

Awesome video! Just so happens that the "niche" that this mic is for is perfect for me. Thanks!

Wow you went above and beyond! Thank you very helpful!

Great review - thank you so much! :-)

I ordered an Azden SMX-30 a couple of days ago... Can't wait to get it!!! Ahhhhhhh...

great video thank you for sharing this video it is appreciated:)

I think MKE 440 is better for musicians (instrumentalists) than the other two. It sounds realistic.

Great comparison!

amazing video. thank you

it would be interesting to test it in a concert : a traditional xy mic would capture a lot of close surrounding speech such while what is intended is to capture the applause and the stage

Thank you for making this video. I’m torn between the Sennheiser and the Rode. I would like to use it to record classical music performances in concert halls from about 15-20 rows away from the stage. In your samples the sennheiser always seem to have a better clearer sound than the rode which sounds more muffled. The Sennheiser seems to sounds more open although it shouldn’t compared to an xy. Is it perhaps because of the bigger space between its 2 shotgun mic’s or could it be because its preamp is of better quality? Thanks in advance.

Thank You!

Thanks great video

Thanks for the review, but I missed an outdoor test, where the differences between micros will increase. I think this micro tries to capture all the sound inside the angle, with the intention to hear just what you see trough the camera and not the surroundings. I would like to hear at least one person talking 3 or 5 m from the camera (in the center of the frame) to hear the differences between the 3 micros.

Outdoor interview would've been good to hear.

Thanks for the great video! Do you mind me asking what you used to record your own voice? Sounded fantastic

The 10 foot test showed the weakness of the Azden in X/Y mode. There is a very artificial hole in the center with that mic in X/Y. Each of you was heard in one speaker only (I listened through a well spaced, calibrated set of studio monitors). That's not the way a human standing there would have heard that room. The human observer would hear you louder (and earlier) in one ear, but the other ear would also pick up the voice. That's what allows the brain to accurately place people in the auditory field. In the Adzen, you brain can't do that because of the hole in the center and you sounded like you were much further apart. It doesn't sound "real". The Sennheiser eliminates that hole because it has a better overlap between the L and R channels. Having that empty center makes it sound artificial when heard over a good pair of stereo speakers. Would like to have heard the Rode in that situation. In the street test, you can hear that difference between the Rode and Sennheiser as well. Compare the two "bus passing" recordings. Try closing your eyes and listen to how quickly the bus is "passed" from the left to the right speaker. You can hear the hole in the center even there. I much prefer the sound of the Sennheiser for the stereo field it produces, but you know what they say about opinions. ;-)

Nice review. Thanks! Im not gonna waste money on mke440 then.

I'm looking to improve the audio while using my DJI Osmo. Do you think this mic would work well in music/concert setting with high SPL? The osmo does ok but at times clips when it is overloaded.

Cheers !

Thanks for sharing! I'm juggling between the MKE 440 and the Panasonic DMW-MS2 Stereo Shotgun. I'm using mainly a GH4 for interviews... Any thoughts?

the MKE440 sounds pretty cool out-of-box (as far as I understood you gave us raw, unfiltered samples) - basically, everything that the sound engineer should do in the post is to adjust the volume (and maybe some compression) but not panning or fighting against the phase shifts. P.S. I've watched this in Sennheiser headphones, so my opinion is not fair enoughXD

Tx for the review. Great job. I just wanna know if you think the Senheiser MKE 440 is it suitable for an entire wedding event keeping in mind that sometimes you need to isolate the voice from the background (speeches, civil and religious ceremonies, live artist singing) and other times you need to have a more stereo sound (party)? I had in mind for this kind of job the Azden SMX-30V which is a great option, better than the SMX-30. Which one would you choose? 🤔

The MKE440 seemed to be a better audio stage in stereo - where I see it being very useful is on a video camera with a moving object passing across the scene. The MKE440 will let your ears hear what you are seeing - where as the Rode will not be as defined in the side to side motion.

When listening on headphones (point being that there is no blending of the left and right channel), I feel that the sound from the Sennheiser places the sounds better than the Rode. There is more coherence between what I hear and what I see. Especially when filming the bus/truck sequence. The sound moves with the picture better on the Sennheiser, imo. Whereas the Rode places me more smack in the middle of all the sounds that I hear. May be a personal preference, but I prefer the Sennheiser's sonic placement of the recorded sound. It just sounds right.

I've Rode Stereo VideoMic Pro, I'dont like how record the voice. I use it with a Sony A7iii. What do you think?

Thanks for the tests. Very interesting mic. Seeing the MKE440 mounted on an angle kind of made me cringe. You didn't test it that way did you?

I like Rode like outdoor mic so much ...

The MKE 440 really seems to be designed for vlogging. Clear and loud close up voice with nice stereo surrounding background. So, you completely missed the point on this.

Can you please tell the best video lens for the Sony A7 under the price of 400 dollars!

Rode is the best for still subject stereo recording like what I am doing: recording audition tape of my hifi speakers and post it online !

You do hear and realize that the Azden has a much higher noise floor level? If you record any serious dialogue, please get a handheld mic (cable or radio), a lavalier, or a mic on a boom pole - far far away from the camera and every crew that maybe makes noise there (touching buttons). Even a handheld recorder close to the mouth is better. But I do agree the use case at 8:14 is ok for dialogue. For getting some general sound in front of the camera the MKE440 looks like a nice little solution.

Hi, Im a little perplexed as this mic MKE440 doesn't seem to work with iPhone, any ideas how I can get it to work with iPhone please??

Adzen sounds good

Azden is build like timber, Sennheiser like a tank. I prefer Sennheiser.

Much more natural sound on Azden and Sennheiser! Rødes bass pick up kills all the detail in the recording. And outdoors the Røde picked up to much deep end truck engines. Also the Zoom entire line up is very bad at the same point. Mutky bassy sound. I prefer the Rolabd and Tascam dr-07, dr-+00 mk2 or dr-60 to any of the zoom recorders

Should I Purchase this in Oct 2023 ? Or should I Purchase rode videomic NTG ? Thanks 😊

Does it function well with a Nikon D5300?

Which one you suggest for recording ambiance like rain thunder nature etc

6:10 - in 2020 we do.

is the "best for this mic" ?? If you want to make a nature documentary, or jsut nature shots, with birds etc. obvouslyu you use a stereo mic. Its not only talking !!:))

The problem with this review is that it was done in a very unfair realistic scenario, in where the room was quite in your test cases. Sennheiser and others have already demonstrated that this mics shines in where you want to interview someone in a noisy environment but want to keep someone of the ambient noise as reference. I would have respected your review if you had tried to carried a conversation on a noisy street.

It's SHUREly strange looking ;)

Wonder if it has a dead cat to fit the mic?