A while back I wrote a review of a popular community portable audio recorder, the Sony PCM-D100.
At that time, a number of people mentioned that there a number of better options than the stock windjammer that is shipped with the D100. So, I decided to buy the Sony PCM-D100 Rycote windjammer ($34.50) and try it myself.
So, today’s post introduces a new feature I’ve been meaning to add to a site: a video article: Sony PCM-D100 Windjammer Test: Sony vs. Rycote.
About the Windjammer Test
The video shows testing the windjammers with a household fan at low and high speeds at distances of a meter and 30 centimeters.
I pair each video test with the D100 source audio and also snapshots of each take’s waveform and spectrogram.
Results
First, here is a downloadable ZIP file (153 MB) of all audio from the takes.
And here is a gallery of the waveforms and spectrograms:
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- Speed Low, Distant, Sony
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- Speed Low, Distant, Rycote
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- Speed High, Distant, Sony
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- Speed High, Distant, Rycote
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- Speed Low, Close, Sony
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- Speed Low, Close, Rycote
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- Speed High, Close, Sony
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- Speed High, Close, Rycote
Here are my observations:
- Both windjammers allow wind to pass to the microphones at both distances, and both fan speeds.
- The Rycote limits wind noise to a rumble in the lower spectrum.
- The Sony allows wind noise to spread higher into the spectrum.
Read More
- Read the Sony PCM-D100 review.
- Learn more about the Sony PCM-D100 Rycote windjammer ($34.50).
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