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Audio-Technica AT4073a

Pricing & Availability

  • MSRP: $999
  • Discontinued

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AT4073a Documentation

ShotgunAudio-Technica AT4073a

Shotgun Condenser Microphone

The AT4071a is a short (9.3''), lightweight shotgun microphone with a true condenser capsule and a patented interference tube that provides “directivity equal to mics up to 50% longer.”

The mic is also remarkable for its high sensitivity (70.8 mV/Pa) and low self-noise (14dBA). A switch on the mic body enables a high-pass filter (-12dB/octave @ 150 Hz).

According to Patent 4,789,044, most “shotgun” microphones attempt to narrow their pickup pattern by attaching an interference pipe to the face of a cardioid transducer, leaving the rear of the capsule is exposed (“positioned at a free audio sound field”).

Patent 4,789,044

[This arrangement] has a defect and drawback [in] that it picks up wind noise and raises a proximity effect which distorts [the] low-band area when the sound source is near.

Audio-Technica’s innovation incorporates the following changes:

  • The holes along the top of the interference tube are elongated, and covered with a polyvinylidene fluoride membrane; these work together to prevent resonance inside the pipe and to introduce a phase change.
  • The transducer is mounted toward the rear of the tube, but offset toward the front to allow space for additional vents in the tube behind the transducer.
  • The outside diameter of the microphone capsule is smaller than the inside diameter of the interference tube, allowing the spaces before and behind the capsule to be acoustically mated.
  • Most, possibly all of the vents in the interference tube are covered with a “non-woven textile,” presumably to reduce wind noise.

See also the AT4071a, a longer version of the same microphone, with higher sensitivity and lower self-noise.

The Audio-Technica AT4073a is also known as: AT4073.

Specifications

Frequency Response - ShotgunClick Graph to Compare!
AT4073a Shotgun Frequency Response Chart
Pickup Patterns Pads & Filters
Shotgun (70.8 mV/Pa; 30 - 20,000 Hz)
  • Filter: HPF: -12dB/octave @ 150Hz (Via Switch)
Capsule Dimensions Impedance SPL/Noise
Diameter n/a
100 Ohms (Low) Max SPL: 126 dB
Self-noise: 14.0 dB(A)
Weight Length Max Diameter Interface(s)
114g (4.02oz) 232mm (9.13'') 21mm (0.83'')
  • 3-pin XLR male (1)
Power Specifications
  • Requires phantom power
  • Phantom voltage: 11–52v

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