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The Schoeps CCM4 is a small diaphragm cardioid microphone featuring a detachable cable and designed for use on singing and speaking voices as well as a wide variety of instruments. It can be used as a spot microphone or for stereo recording with additional mics in coincident, ORTF, or M/S microphone arrangements.
Sensitivity: 13 mV/Pa or -37.7 dB
Self Noise: 15 dB
$1858
The image on the left is the polar plot for the Schoeps CCM 4 + MK 4 microphone. Clearly a cardioid pickup pattern, it becomes transformed to that below when facing a 22" Telinga dish.
Telinga Modular
Telinga Modular a 22" foldable professional parabolic dish set offering your microphones to be used in mono or PZM stereo configurations. Includes handle with mounting kit, foldable dish, Rycote Telinga OEM basket + OEM windjammer (currently supplied by Radius Windshields) + 2 pcs interchangeable Telinga foam cartridges:
Please note: the Telinga Modular does not include microphone or cable/connectors. It is designed for professionals wishing to use a favorite configuration of own mics in the parabolic dish.
$1099
The image on the left is a polar plot of the Telinga 22" coupled with the Schoeps CCM 4 + MK 4 capsule. It is included in the User Manual of the Telinga Modular microphone. I digitized this plot in order to compare it to the Wildtronics.
The following polar chart compares the Wildtronics Pro Mono to the Telinga Modular. I retain the standard zero dB at zero degree polar. While Wildtronics does give data to allow me to calculate the absolute sensitivity vs polar angle, this was not available for the Telings/Schoeps configuration. (as they published a polar plot, the actual sensitivity ought to be somewhere unpublished).
Note also that the Schoeps CCM 4 sensitivity is not that great at -37.7 dB. It does not even make it onto my microphone spec list. (The Røde NT1 S has -32 dB and the Lewitt LCT 540 S has -28 dB). I presume it was chosen because it is an end-address mic suitable for use with the Telinga dish.
On the following plot I give the curves for 1000 Hz on both dishes, and the Wildtronics at 3150 Hz and the Telinga at 4000 Hz. The two curves at 1000 Hz are pretty much identical in the forward high-gain portion. Note here that on the Telings polar chart the curve labeled 32 kHz lies outside the higher frequency curves of 4, 8, and 16 kHz (defying the laws of physics) and I make the assumption that things are mis-labeled. That is, the curve labeled 32k is in fact the 4000 Hz curve and I present that accordingly. You should note here the close correspondance between the curves at the same/similar frequencies. The curves differ mainly in the positions of the side lobes.
The two dishes have the same basic geometry, diameter and focal depth, and this is what determines the hyper-cordioid pattern of the polar charts. Being both 22 inch dishes, they are equally directional. The main difference between the two systems lie in the sound pressure sensitivities.
It is a pity that so little technical data is available for the Telinga Modular. No frequency response and no dish gain curves are published. Given the very close similarity of the curves above I imagine the two dishes are the same in other aspects as well, ie: gain and efficiency.
Can we ever hope to even guess the relative sensitivities of the two dishes?. Quite possibly. Total system sensitivity is the sensitivity of the microphone boosted by the gain of the dish (times some efficiency factor). Note that everything after this is based on numbers at 1000 Hz.
Telinga/Schoeps:
For the Telinga/Schoeps setop we know the microphone sensitivity and dish gain equation. We need only guess on the Telinga dish efficiency. IEEE provides for us a range of efficiency between 40 and 70% and suggests 50% as a starting place. Sounds good to me, lets assume 50% efficiency and start guessing!
A) Total Sensitivity = Dish 50% gain (8.46 dB) plus Microphone sensitivity (-37.7 dB) = -29.3 dB.
B) Total Sensitivity = Dish 65% gain (10.7 dB) plus Microphone sensitivity (-37.7 dB) = -27.0 dB. (about as generous as I can imagine)
If the Schoeps microphone really has only -37.7 dB sensitivity then the Telinga/Schoeps combo is going to suffer significantly.
Use the -23.5 dB capsule off a Rode NTG5 and you may increase the Telinga sensitivity to -15 dB.
Wildtronics:
For the Wildtronics system we know the answer, the sensitivity is -4 dB. All that follows is just showing off. Wildtronics publishes the microphone plus booster sensitivity as 10 dB!! This is incredible as the best condenser mike "out there" (Sennheiser MKH 8070) has -19 dB. I must go out on a limb here and ASSUME the actual value is -10 dB. Since the mic plus booster = -10 dB, take away the 6 dB boundary boost and the microphone array must have a fantastic but still credible -16 dB sensitivity.
Total Sensitivity (-4 dB) = Dish 40% gain (6.52 dB) plus booster gain (6 dB) plus Microphone sensitivity (-16 dB) =~ -4 dB.
I use only 40% efficiency because that makes the numbers add up and I assume the 6" booster disk blocks enough of the dish to lower its efficiency. Its my best educated guess.
My analysis strongly suggests that the Wildtronics setup easily has greater than 20 dB sensitivity than the Telinga/Schoeps setup while retaining the same directionality.
$790 versus $2957, you be the judge.
KJS 04/2025