AudioChainsDB

Electro-VoicePL33

microphone

New retail price (MSRP)

$149

Used market: $115*

Check price at ThomannManufacturer datasheet

Specifications

5 of 8 values have a recorded source
Connectors
XLR 3-Pin Male·
Built-in converter
no·
Transducer
Dynamic Moving Coil✓
Sensitivity
-66✓
Output impedance
150✓
Phantom power required
no✓
Connection
XLR-Only✓
Indexable Locales
·

Expert Audio Engineering Commentary

Tonal profile

Supercardioid neodymium kick-drum microphone from the PL line. Electro-Voice prints the sensitivity in both scales - 0.5 mV/Pa and -66 dBV - and the two agree exactly, which is what a specification row should look like.

Gain staging

-66 dBV/Pa is the quietest microphone in this batch: 10 dB below an SM57, 4 dB below an Audix D6 and 13.6 dB below an ND76 from the same catalogue. It is designed for the inside of a kick drum and nowhere else. Ask it for a voice at 30 cm and you will be at the top of a budget preamp's gain range with its own noise floor in plain hearing.

* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~77% retained value).