Holophone H3-D 5.1 Surround Sound Recording Microphone
[Manufacturer's Website]

The Holophone H3-D is a 5.1 surround sound microphone designed for recording, live sound, broadcast, and educational purposes. The Holophone comes with 6 microphone elements arranged in such a way to emulate the way we hear sound. It's elliptical design and patented surround technology allows professional surround sound capture at a very low price ($1799.95 Jan-2009).

It connects to your system via a 15 ft Monster cable that terminates to 6 Neutrik® XLR connectors. Each XLR is wired to a specific microphone channel (L, C, R, Ls, Rs, and Sub). Each of the five main channel microphone element have a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz with the LFE mic capable of recording 20 to 100 Hz. Phantom power is required to run the system. It can be anywhere between 24 and 48 Volts DC. The mic can be mounted on a stand or flipped over and hung from the ceiling. It's compatible with all microphone preamps, location recorders and recording consoles that provide phantom power. Each mic has an impedance of less than 2.2 kOhms and can handle sound pressure levels up to 130 dB.

The H3-D microphone head is about 8 inches by 6 inches and weighs 3 lbs. It is lightweight and can easily be moved but really isn't designed to (the cable it’s a little difficult to move also). Holophone has a smaller more compact system called the PortaMic that can be mounted on to a Camcorder. The head emulates the shape, size, and density of the human head. It correlates the audio in such a way as to simulate how we hear sound as it is reproduced via a 5.1 surround sound system. The main difference between this mic and say using a single microphone is the single microphone is unable to reproduce small but important volume, eq, and timing changes required for accurate spatial placement of the sound source within the sound field. The Holophone does this naturally because of its design rather than DSP processing. The Head allows for the subtle changes to the sound to be heard from each speaker to generate a complete enveloping sound with accurate phantom images.

Features

• Inexpensive to other 5.1 surround systems or by creating your own
• Creates an accurate 5.1 sound field with no guesswork
• Doesn’t require complex time-consuming setups as you would using multi-microphones
• Based on patented Holophone Surround Audio capture technology
• Six Channel Discrete Microphones (L, C, R, LFE, Ls, Rs)
• Full Bandwidth on 5 main channels
• Limited Bandwidth on LFE Channel
• Multi-directional polar pattern produced by all microphones
• Phantom Power with LED Power Indicator
• 15 Foot Monster Cable with 6 Neutrik XLR connectors
• Hand-Grip and Windscreen available

Specs:

• Multi-directional microphone pickup pattern
• Physical Dimensions: Approx. 8 inch X 6 inch in physical size
• 3 lbs. Weight
• 15ft Cable length
• (6) XLR male connectors
• 20 Hz to 20 kHz Frequency Response (Main Channels)
• 20 Hz to 100 Hz Frequency Response (LFE Channel)
• 24 to 48 Volts DC Phantom Power Required
• Less Than 2.2 kOhms Impedance
• Maximum SPL 130

[Manufacturer's Website - download PDF Manual]

This microphone is no longer made nor is the Area 5.1 microphone pre-amplifier. It is a standalone 5.1 surround microphone system. It has 5 mic elements (L, C, R, LFE, Ls, and Rs). The included processor generates the LFE channel as well as panorma matrix and monitoring. Each microphone element can be moved and its polar pattern changed to accomadate different requirements. The controller also houses five precision microphone preamps that feature SPL's triple gain stage preamps. Each preamp has ServoDrive techonlogy that effectively removes any DC offsets present at the Positive or Negative paths. Each preamp also includes a Lundahl transformer with a pad switch, phase reversal switch, and phantom power as well as low and high cut filters and a switchable insert and tape send/returns.

Each microphone in the system is a Brauner ASM 5. The preamps are designed to produce a transparent, noiseless, and uncolored sound.