The Fated Hand.
My search for a Synco D1 has been a miss. Two have been ordered, both have fallen through and I am going to take the hint (and try to get my money back from one “seller”).
The mic is good, very well priced, but a few things were on my mind.
The 100hr battery needed for wireless operation (needs its own power for the Lekato to work) does not have an on/off switch apparently, meaning I would have to (a) remove it each use and (b) keep a spare.
It was also very long and I was wondering what bag would be able to take it.
Finally the D1 looks to be on run-out.
The brand has a bit of an iffy rep. Paid for reviews, “rip-off” designs, granted a common enough thing, and few top tier reviewers or retailers dealing with them.
The pricing was all over the place. Rip-offs of rip-offs?
The Sennheiser MKE-600 has always been the one in the back of my mind, but until recently it seemed to be basically a less practical run-n-gun option to the MKE-400 or Zoom capsule SSH-6 I already have.
The 400 is to my mind the ultimate “always ready” shotgun mic*, being small, self contained, and high quality, the SSH-6 has again great quality with mid-side capability and the convenience/inconvenience of being a Zoom capsule.
Needs change and my possible future need is for a better boom mic, preferably one with a cordless options and better range and rejection.
I have other options to the clip, may be set for a wind sock, the bag is going to be replaced by a hard case with phones, the Lekato kit etc and the ‘plosive filter kept.
Longer, especially at the rear, no inbuilt shock mount or wind blimp like the 400 or the capsule convenience of the SSH-6 previously made it and only marginally better overall sound than either made it for me, a poor choice, but this morning I did some video with a shotgun (SSH-6 on camera with F1, mid-side to “0ff”) and it has proven to be again the way to go.
I just need more flexibility.
I have found a well priced one (about the same price as the RRP of the MKE-400 and from a genuine dealer), so about twice the price of the D1.
Genuine brand, better battery life (with on-off feature), sound that is often favourably compared to the MKH-416, compatibility with the 400 for dual mic-ing and a local retailer.
*The mic is on a shock mount inside a blimp, which solves a lot of problems.