e 600/800: Within everyone’s budget – above the norm
At the end of the 1990s, the evolution series changed Sennheiser at all levels – from development through to sales and distribution. Whereas hitherto the German brand had been known for its – rather high-cost – broadcast and studio solutions, the engineers were now also developing microphones for live stages. How does one combine high standards, one’s own experience and the possibilities offered by automated production? The answer to this was demonstrated from 1998 onwards by the e 600-series instrument microphones and the vocal /speech microphones from the e 800 series. As a result, legendary but previously expensive prototypes from the MD series suddenly also became available at prices which – finally – was within the budget of a much wider group of the population. Here, “evolution” was not simply a name but a philosophy. Models whose performance people were not satisfied with were overhauled within a short space of time and reissued. Shortly afterwards the e 900 series arrived to crown the evolution range; these products provided workflow, sound and a robustness which also satisfied the very exacting demands of live performances.
With the e 602-II, you will get more out of your kick drum: bass sounds with more punch, more precise attack and more transparent high frequencies. Below you can find out why.
Famous ancestors
On the desk in front of portfolio manager Sebastian Schmitz, two additional microphones are lying next to the e 602-II: an e 602 and an MD 421. “Without these two, the e 602-II wouldn’t exist.” Inquiring looks. “Well, you see, specialist microphones for capturing the sound of kick drums are still in their relative infancy. They didn’t come about until the mid-1980s. Before this, the miking of kick drums was usually done with all-round microphones – both in the studio and for live productions,” explains Schmitz. “One of these was our MD 421, which produced very good results.” This is not surprising – after all, the MD 421 is still one of the most well-known, versatile microphones in the world.
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The MD 421 is one of Sennheiser’s most famous microphones.
“We then, when developing the evolution series, also designed a specialized kick drum microphone – the e 602 – into which we incorporated the tried-and-tested transducer from the MD 421. This was an obvious thing to do,” continues Sebastian Schmitz. To adapt it better to its task, the frequency response of the e 602 was however pre-formed – which was not the case with the MD 421. This has made it possible to reproduce more deep bass sounds on the one hand and more powerful attack on the other.