Coles 4104 Microphone Lip

Coles 4104 microphone lip is a broadcast quality noise-cancelling ‘lip’ microphone, specifically for commentary work in environments where the level of background noise requires that the microphone be used very close to the mouth. It is a gradient ribbon unit with a high degree of acoustic damping, fitted into a special case equipped with nose and mouth breath shields. The talking distance has to be controlled accurately in order to maintain the correct frequency response (avoidance of variation of proximity effect) and this is done by positioning bars which contact the user’s upper lip. The microphone body, finished in brown enamel paint is mounted on a brown PVC covered, ribbed handle which increases grip for long periods. Noise reduction is achieved partially through the polar response and partially through the substantial LF roll-off characteristics of the free-field response of the ribbon unit (which is optimised for a flat near-field response). The speech quality is good, mainly due to the correct balance being obtained between the nose and the mouth tones – any deficiency of the former gives a ‘stuffy’ and unnatural speech quality.