This DPA noise thing is bugging me. Im on the verge of buying a pair of 4091's or 4090's and will sort out a demo to hear for myself. Its interesting though that many different people on this forum have had different experiences regards their self noise. Could those people with negative experiences please clarify what application they used the DPA's on in order to reach their conclusion? Could this information also include whether it was a studio recording or a location recording? As Rich has pointed out before there is an inherent difference in the 2 scenarios regards a microphones self-noise.
I stumbled across this info from DPA and it might shed some light on the noise figures. Rich has already touched on some of this but I believe this to be from the horses mouth:
Quote:
A last note regarding noise: The 4090 and 4091 mics have a very low noise floor, inaudible in virtually any application. Please remember this: there
are currently no standards for measuring noise. As our background and
heritage is that of a test and instrumentation company, we use very
scientific and conservative methods for specifying the performance of our
products. We have found that looking at a wide range of very respected
manufacturers, the variations in measurement methodology results in the same
mics having as much as 8 to 10 dB difference depending on whose method is
used.
We have seen mics from other companies that they state, say, a 20dBA noise
spec that when we measure that same mic using our methodology, we find the
noise to be 28dBA or greater. Also, when others measure a mic from DPA that
has, say, a 20dBA noise floor, their methodology finds our mic measuring at
12dBA or even less. Don't take published noise figures and use them as
absolutes. I do not believe that you can compare them in an apples to
apples fashion. You will find the noise floors on these new models of mics,
the 4090 and 4091, to perform way below what you have come to expect from
other mics that measure in the mid 20's (dBA) in noise.
Best Regards,
Bruce
Bruce Myers
President
DPA Microphones Inc.
2432 N. Main Street, Ste 200
Longmont, CO 80501
303-485-1025
866-DPA-MICS
I will of course listen for myself. If I am satisfied with the self noise is there anything else to be concerned with if attempting to use these as a main spaced pair? Someone suggested they darken up considerably with the diffuse sound field compared to others?
Quote:
I think it's only fair to warn you that many commercial choir recordings have a fair amount of Lexicon reverb mixed in post session.
Not something I would personally ever do.
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And more to the point, they have good halls. People who don't have good halls do what they have to do. 
