New Heil HM10 XD Microphone - Poor Design?

[Tony-3]

All:

I purchased the new Heil HM-10 dual element microphone thinking it would
perform as well as my old HM-10 which has the HC4 and HC5 mic elements.
Unfortunately, that's not the case and reason seems to be the way the
new mic was designed.

The mic elements are at a 45 degree angle and placed much further away
from the windscreen compared to the old mic. The result is that the new
mic requires near maximum gain (maximum with some rigs) to set the ALC
properly, even when you're up close to the mic.

By comparison, the early HM-10 faces it's elements forward and close to
the windscreen so the mic requires A LOT less gain which results in much
better overall performance.

The elements on the new HM-10 have individual windscreens as well and
that seems to add further restriction. The HC4 / HC5 elements on the old
mic have no additional windscreens.

The good news is that Heil did a great job duplicating the HC4 / HC5
frequency response so the new elements produce the great articulation
the old elements are known for. The problem with the new mic (as I see
it) is it's physical design.

Has anyone else compared the new HM-10 XD to the old HM-10 with their
K3S or any other transceivers?

Tony -K2MO

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[NJ8M]

I quit using Heil products. Many of the ear muffs rotted off after one
sweaty session at FD. I switched over to a $29.99 Logitec boom mic computer
headset with 1/8 plugs. I figured it would break easily, I was wrong, I am
still using it after 7 years and many sweaty operating conditions, FD,
Special events, POTA, etc. Never a problem and my voice is very natural and
I regularly get great sound reports from people that know my voice.On the
K3s with factory defaults, I just leave the equalization sliders alone and
I am good to go. I have used the same headset traveling playing computer
games in hotel rooms for 10 years.  Both my son and I abandon Heil products
because of their product construction and reliability issues. The computer
gaming manufactures understand what it takes to make a great comfortable
headset and Bob Heil could take lessons from them. For instance, cloth ear
muff covering, braided nylon cable coverings, easy swivel phones on the
headband, lightweight but strong construction that does not crush your ears
like a set of unpadded tuna cans mounted to a 29cent headband from the
dollar store. Even the Heil replacement cables made of flat 3 wired cable,
will rot and crack in high humidity and heat that we regularly experience
in Kansas. The cables fatigue so easily and are easily cut if a drawer or
door closes on them or if a chair rolls over them, you are done. Operating
outside in South Texas or near sea air in Maine in the summertime will do a
number on the cables and the earmuff covering. The computer headsets have
the nylon braided covering and the braid is moulded into the connector
preventing sharp bending fatigue. For me it is Logitec with the
electrec mic. They are lightweight, totally cover the ear, mute external
sound well and cost 1/10th of what a set of heils run and last at least 4
to 5 times as long probably....after 7 years, I'm still on my first pair.
In contrast I was going through a set of Heils every 18 months as something
would go wrong. Generally the flimsy cables would short/open circuit or the
earmuffs would rot off. Don't even mention the $250 dollar set that after
wearing for 4 hours, gives me a headache and is as heavy as 2 anvils
crushing into the side of your head. Why did I buy so many Heil products,
mainly because I could not try them on. I go to BestBuy, The headsets are
all on display for comfort and sound quality. Try them on, choose your
pair, walk out a happy man.

My 2 cents and for what it is worth, and $2.98 you can get a cup of joe.

73,
Morgan NJ8M

On Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 12:45 AM Tony <[hidden email]> wrote:

> All:
>
> I purchased the new Heil HM-10 dual element microphone thinking it would
> perform as well as my old HM-10 which has the HC4 and HC5 mic elements.
> Unfortunately, that's not the case and reason seems to be the way the
> new mic was designed.
>
> The mic elements are at a 45 degree angle and placed much further away
> from the windscreen compared to the old mic. The result is that the new
> mic requires near maximum gain (maximum with some rigs) to set the ALC
> properly, even when you're up close to the mic.
>
> By comparison, the early HM-10 faces it's elements forward and close to
> the windscreen so the mic requires A LOT less gain which results in much
> better overall performance.
>
> The elements on the new HM-10 have individual windscreens as well and
> that seems to add further restriction. The HC4 / HC5 elements on the old
> mic have no additional windscreens.
>
> The good news is that Heil did a great job duplicating the HC4 / HC5
> frequency response so the new elements produce the great articulation
> the old elements are known for. The problem with the new mic (as I see
> it) is it's physical design.
>
> Has anyone else compared the new HM-10 XD to the old HM-10 with their
> K3S or any other transceivers?
>
> Tony -K2MO
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

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[Bill Steffey NY9H]

headsets

four years ago while on a bike trip along the Danube, my kx3's headset
cable broke ... not to fear cause in the next village the locals had a
6$ computer headset, which I still keep in the kx3 setup. While it does
have some 'rescue" tape on it ,,,,it still works great. I don't think
there is such a thing as a bad electret,,,   Even after a headset
breaks..steal the electret from it ...cause it works.



--
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[Gwen Patton]

I have an HM-10, but I've had it for about 15 years. It's on my Icom 746
Pro that I only currently use for 2m nets on Sundays, or if I feel like
getting on the local 2m repeater. I'm considering installing it in my van
for QRO field ops, though that'll require me getting a replacement 2m base
rig. (I have an ancient Yaesu FT-90 on my workbench, but it suffers
massively from temperature issues, and it's not in good shape otherwise, so
it doesn't owe me anything. I can replace it without shame.)

The microphone has always been a good one for me. So much so, that when the
element switch snapped off at the base of the toggle handle, I went to the
hassle of tracking down a replacement switch, taking the mike apart, and
swapping the switch out. I expect it'll last me another 10 years or more.
It's a great mike, and what I've heard of the more recent changes at Heil
make me glad this one is so well-made. I wouldn't buy one of the new ones
unless I had to for some reason.

What I use on my KX3 is a Zoom H4n Handy Recorder in USB interface mode. I
run my KX3 mike and speaker jacks into a dedicated USB dongle on my main
PC, and control the rig through Win4K3Suite. I use Voicemeeter Potato
virtual audio mixer and virtual audio cables to route the H4n to the mike
input on the KX3. It sounds great, as the Zoom mike elements are totally
awesome broadcast quality.

Eventually, I may look into an adapter from the Heil 4-pin XLR to standard
3-pin XLR with an external PTT button, because the H4n has two XLR inputs
on the bottom (they also incorporate 1/4" inputs in the center of the same
jack), and that might be a good option to keep the Heil in service. I don't
know that I want to put it in the van with the Icom...but it'll depend on
where and how I mount that rig.

Another option is some other arrangement for using the HM-10 directly on
the KX3, but I can't see how I could do better than an XLR connection,
especially given the flexibility of the virtual mixer and Win4K3Suite.
Maybe someday the H4n will die, but frankly, I'd probably replace it with a
new Zoom Handy Recorder, probably the new H4n Pro, H5, or H6, the latter
two of which would give me the option of swapping out the mike elements if
I feel like it. I'd probably get the H6; it has the most flexibility -- two
more recording tracks and will use up to 128GB SDXC cards.

If you haven't seen them, the Zoom Handy Recorders are more than just
digital voice recorders. They're multitrack mixing and recording decks that
will save directly to an SD card, and will run for weeks on a couple of AA
or AAA batteries -- or forever, powered by the USB interface. There's a
variety of interchangeable modules that work with the H5 and H6, including
a shotgun mike and several different stereo mike modules. They're
expensive, but they're professional audio gear. There are lesser models if
you don't need as many recording features, such as multitracking, and all
of them work as USB interfaces.
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/field-recording

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
73,
Gwen, NG3P


On Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 8:46 AM Morgan Bailey <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I quit using Heil products. Many of the ear muffs rotted off after one
> sweaty session at FD. I switched over to a $29.99 Logitec boom mic computer
> headset with 1/8 plugs. I figured it would break easily, I was wrong, I am
> still using it after 7 years and many sweaty operating conditions, FD,
> Special events, POTA, etc. Never a problem and my voice is very natural and
> I regularly get great sound reports from people that know my voice.On the
> K3s with factory defaults, I just leave the equalization sliders alone and
> I am good to go. I have used the same headset traveling playing computer
> games in hotel rooms for 10 years.  Both my son and I abandon Heil products
> because of their product construction and reliability issues. The computer
> gaming manufactures understand what it takes to make a great comfortable
> headset and Bob Heil could take lessons from them. For instance, cloth ear
> muff covering, braided nylon cable coverings, easy swivel phones on the
> headband, lightweight but strong construction that does not crush your ears
> like a set of unpadded tuna cans mounted to a 29cent headband from the
> dollar store. Even the Heil replacement cables made of flat 3 wired cable,
> will rot and crack in high humidity and heat that we regularly experience
> in Kansas. The cables fatigue so easily and are easily cut if a drawer or
> door closes on them or if a chair rolls over them, you are done. Operating
> outside in South Texas or near sea air in Maine in the summertime will do a
> number on the cables and the earmuff covering. The computer headsets have
> the nylon braided covering and the braid is moulded into the connector
> preventing sharp bending fatigue. For me it is Logitec with the
> electrec mic. They are lightweight, totally cover the ear, mute external
> sound well and cost 1/10th of what a set of heils run and last at least 4
> to 5 times as long probably....after 7 years, I'm still on my first pair.
> In contrast I was going through a set of Heils every 18 months as something
> would go wrong. Generally the flimsy cables would short/open circuit or the
> earmuffs would rot off. Don't even mention the $250 dollar set that after
> wearing for 4 hours, gives me a headache and is as heavy as 2 anvils
> crushing into the side of your head. Why did I buy so many Heil products,
> mainly because I could not try them on. I go to BestBuy, The headsets are
> all on display for comfort and sound quality. Try them on, choose your
> pair, walk out a happy man.
>
> My 2 cents and for what it is worth, and $2.98 you can get a cup of joe.
>
> 73,
> Morgan NJ8M
>
> On Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 12:45 AM Tony <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > All:
> >
> > I purchased the new Heil HM-10 dual element microphone thinking it would
> > perform as well as my old HM-10 which has the HC4 and HC5 mic elements.
> > Unfortunately, that's not the case and reason seems to be the way the
> > new mic was designed.
> >
> > The mic elements are at a 45 degree angle and placed much further away
> > from the windscreen compared to the old mic. The result is that the new
> > mic requires near maximum gain (maximum with some rigs) to set the ALC
> > properly, even when you're up close to the mic.
> >
> > By comparison, the early HM-10 faces it's elements forward and close to
> > the windscreen so the mic requires A LOT less gain which results in much
> > better overall performance.
> >
> > The elements on the new HM-10 have individual windscreens as well and
> > that seems to add further restriction. The HC4 / HC5 elements on the old
> > mic have no additional windscreens.
> >
> > The good news is that Heil did a great job duplicating the HC4 / HC5
> > frequency response so the new elements produce the great articulation
> > the old elements are known for. The problem with the new mic (as I see
> > it) is it's physical design.
> >
> > Has anyone else compared the new HM-10 XD to the old HM-10 with their
> > K3S or any other transceivers?
> >
> > Tony -K2MO
> >
> > ______________________________________________________________
> > Elecraft mailing list
> > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> > Post: mailto:[hidden email]
> >
> > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> > Message delivered to [hidden email]
> >
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

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