Testing Sony Hotshoe Mics: ECM-B1M & ECM-XYST1M 

I watched to the end and really appreciate the variety and thoroughness of your tests. Seeing/hearing that the ECM-B1M doesn't bottom out while walking along with some exaggerated hand shake has convinced me to get this mic. Thanks.

Really engaging presentation and great variety of demo. You gave a lot of information. This helps in making a choice! thanks .

Terrific comparison test - highly informative - I will now buy an ECM-SYST1M for my RX1.

This is what I've wanted to know for a long time :) Thank you very much! You're my hero!

Thank you so much I was looking for a few mics for my Sony and I appreciate the variety in environment changes to know what it sounds like. I usually do a lot of run and gun work! Helps greatly!!

Awesome review! Good video🎉

Great review!

thanks for the detailed review. i bought the older stereo version last night and glad i did after watching this review. im going to use it for recording live solo gigs and the stereo sound cant be beat Thanks again.

best test of this microphones

Awesome review, appreciate it !!

Cool review man

B1M truly works. Its digital wizardry literally cannot be found in any other mics and I definitely can hear a BIG difference. The only wish I have, is to let B1M have a dead cat as effective as the Rode Micro. Eric, thanks for making this video!

Listening to the audio of this on Sony WH1000-XM4 headphones. Works for me! ;)

Exactly my review! Thanks.

I listened with headphones and did not hear any stereo separation with the new mike in 360 mode whereas the ECM-xyst1m stereo microphone had genuine stereo coming from left and right which is what I like to hear for ambiance in my videos when outdoors, thanks for that detailed review ❤

Best review mic ever !

This is not only a detailed review for ECM-B1M, it's also a detailed review for ECM-XYST1M which is difficult to find (how do SONY come up with these names ...). And this review has test for how it sounds like when talking behind. Thanks.

Gracias por la Review me sirvio mucho.

Seems like RODE is all I need for my first mic, thanks!

thx, very nice video.

I'm shopping a microphone for my Sony A74. The purpose of microphone is to eliminate the background noise when recording the Orchestra scene (My kiddos is playing). So these 2 type of Sony microphones is come up on my list. While it's hard to determine which one is best for the price.... I found your video, very helpful. I may end up with the old ECMXYST1M just because of its Stereo. Thank Eric for your time. Thumb up.

Hi, great video. I still have a question. What happens when you put ECM-B1M on the hot shoe mount and connect another mic through the 3.5 mic jack on the body? Does the 3.5 jack mic takes over on both channels Or does it start splitting the mics on different channels Or the hot shoe mic remains on both channels I'm asking because I want to connect tentacle sync E timecode module to 3.5 jack (which records beeps on one channel) but still want a shotgun mic sound in camera through the hotshoe mount. I hope i explained my question properly. Thanks.

Great review. For two person trade show indoor interviews from 10 feet away (2-3 meters) from the camera, do you feel this B1M shotgun mic will be effective in picking up two voices with my Sony Zv-e10? Assume we set it for unidirectional. I travel alot pre pandemic so portability is key. All the other reviews are hand held which is too close for my use case. And they only involve one person.

Thx for the highly detailed video, that will help me to make a decision. I m living in Japan too :) you re 2m tall and living in Japan 😮 it must not be easy sometimes

So sorry for an off topic question but how long have you had the tattoo on your arm (bicep area) with the baby blue color? I’m asking because I feel like you’ve had it a while and the color still looks great. Do you do anything special to maintain the tattoos? Colors are going on mine but they are over 20 years old and I live in Florida where the sun sits on us.

Can you test Olympus ME-51S stereo microphone compared with the internal microphones of a6400? Or versus Sony ECM-DS70P stereo microphone, if you can find one?

hey bro... do i have to select the ECM-XYST1M as the audio source in the camera? or does it default to the hotshoe audio device? thanks

Which Mikrofon would you prepare for Record the Bird sounds ? Thank you from Germany

i called the old one Xystim, got one for 45usd and i like its directionality so yeah,

Actually the older mic spread apart sounds best. Voice is smoother and almost mono, but you get some stereo ambiance too. Which is great. So, I would let them always spread apart, even if I film a person in front of me. It doesn’t sound too “hot” (like a shot gun mic almost).

360 works well

👍

Am I the only one who hear that XYST1M sounds better than B1M ???

😎😎😎

I keep waiting for an update to this line. The naming and lack of stock indicates they don't intend for this to be a mainstream product yet.

Hey Eric, a constructive suggestion: Maybe don't make your channel name so complicated with emoji and Japanese characters, it makes viewers hard to search for your channel if they specifically want to type in your channel name into search bar, unlike "Peter McKinnon" or "Unbox Therapy". Best of luck hitting 1k subs soon!

You should wear a red and white stripe shirt and hide in the crowd. XD Good test, thanks! :)

Im surprised of the Pixels mic, l take that 😂

Newest one best but lot of bass

they should ditch the weird naming scheme (they do it for everything) and call it the double barrel. tldr : i think the double barrel in split Y mode sounds better all around with little fuss/setting and sounds more 3D if you're talking from the left or right side of the mic. in straight shooter mode the voice comes in a little overbearing. the single shooter is nice for the 360 mode, but the NC mode really gets into the weeds and cancels/dulls out the ambient sounds, it almost sounds like you're hearing it from the other end of a cell phone, and you really don't want to suck the life out of the environment because of a microphone setting. attenuating makes it too quiet for your purposes.

The sentence: " I have not tested yet" is what makes this video interesting?

Love the super geek! I would say that the difference is not worth the price,

It's a good review and demo. But there is just a little bit too much yammering. You went shooting from the waist on this one, or in other words, you were shooting "run n' gun" method. This means that you did your presentation without a script. You are well spoken, but there is just too much hemming and hawing. Write a script. Rehearse and practice with it before doing any filming. Then, do a wet run by filming yourself using your script... a "first take" if you will. Know what the settings are onboard each of the microphones you are demonstrating. You are knowledgeable about the kind of shooting you want to do. But you are lacking in proper knowledge of how, why, where and what microphones are used for and what the are capable of doing. By having a script, or even a cheat sheet on hand wile filming, it will allow you to create and to film a much more polished presentation, and you will come across as sounding more professional. For audio you need to know and understand some of the basic terminology used to describe sound features. This is especially important when using microphones and setting them to the desired goal settings. Knowing the frequencies and frequency responses is an absolute must for good audio. Knowing how to dial in your settings on any microphone is critically important. You like shooting on "full auto mode" for your microphones. You said so yourself. That's OK. But there will always be situations where full auto mode can be problematic. Your newest microphone addresses this problem very nicely. It has an attenuate mode with 3 different settings. Audio can further be adjusted by setting the input levels. Your sound system can be manually dialed in for the desired amount of sound you want to capture and use. This is especially important when shooting and filming certain types of audio such as an interview for example. Having an input control adds so much more versatility to filmmaking. It can be complicated and is a complex subject. The microphone settings on your new microphone serves very important functions. The top mode is "shotgun" and is designed to focus and to draw in sound only from a specific direction. The second mode adds more ambiance by making the recording sound more spacial, and is probably a stereo setting. The third setting is a wide mode designed to take in the most ambient noises surrounding your camera and microphone. This kind of spacial audio is important for capturing ambiance in a given situation. A good example for capturing ambiance would be in a natural, or any kind of an outdoor setting. Spacial audio adds color to the ambiance and helps to make videos to sound and feel more realistic. Professional videographers have a wide array and assortment of different audio equipment, including an assortment of different microphones and sound recording equipment. Most pros use mono mics that only records on one channel. They generate and create stereophonic recordings by recording the left, mid and right channels separately. The audio tracks are merged and synced in post. This allows for far greater control for the way audio sounds. This is also why most video professionals use a "clapper board." The clapper generates a loud, short and abrupt sound that allows them to synchronize the audio with video or film footage. It is quite an elaborate art and takes some skill and effort to achieve the best possible audio for videos or film. Whenever and wherever possible I use my clapper board. I sync my audio in post by using the soundtrack recorded by my video camera. I locate the clapper sound on my digital audio recorder and match it up with the clapper sound of my video. Then once they are in sync, I remove and delete the video sound, or will attenuate it to -0. Sometimes there is a need to use onboard audio so I can edit it back in and dub it over the digital audio recordings to create the best possible sound I can. I own and use a "Zoom H4-N digital audio recorder. I'm telling you this because 1, I used to be an audio engineer/producer for radio. And 2, I think you have the necessary skills to make and create more professional sounding and looking videos. You've got the right idea. But you need to expand your knowledge and understanding of why sound is so important in filmmaking photography of any kind. Nice video. Thank you for your time.