DPA d:screet CORE 6061 Mic-Loud SPL MicroDot -Black

Product Reviews

The new 6060/ 6061 is a great match to the older designed 4060/ 4061. They do NOT sound exactly alike, but they sound more alike than any other small/ lav-type microphone and they are pretty darned close. In fact, their sound is close enough that if you move them around on your actors/ talent, that will make more of a difference than choosing a 6061 or a 4061 will make.

I just wrapped on a TV show episode where I used the 6061 and 4061 interchangeably. In practice, I could not hear a difference between them.

The 6061 is indeed quite a bit smaller than the 4061 from DPA. It will fit through a button hole and live behind a button on a dress shirt which is nice trick that was previously reserved only for the Countryman B6. To my ears, the DPA lav mics sound far superior to any other lav mic, including the B6, COS-11D, TRAM and anything else I have been able to compare them with. So the fact that the 6061 can cover the unique tasks previously reserved for an industry standard like the Countryman B6 is a serious achievement for DPA.

If you have NOT used DPA lav mics, sonically here is what you can expect: clean, clear dialogue that sounds very natural. In fact, it sounds like real life to my ears which is not true with pretty much everything else. The DPA lav mics (4061 and 6061) deliver dialogue capture on par with whatever boom mic one plans to use. The same as any given boom mic?---No. But on par?---yes. I should add the DPA 6061 is just as susceptible as any other microphone to noise generated by body hair, fabric and noises typically heard on a person's body--there is no real fix for those issues other than hard work, working with wardrobe and listening intently and trying a new mic placement.

One very annoying downside to the 6061: there is a small diameter cap the clicks in place over the actual capsule of the microphone. BEWARE: this cap can pop off fairly easily and is so small that if you drop it, it will probably be gone forever. There is a significant cost to acquiring a replacement. I forget what the actual $$$ amount for the replacement cap is (I read a colleagues' account at buying a new cap and forget the number he related) but it costs a lot more than it should in my humble opinion.

Another word of caution with this microphone: because it is so very small, mounting the microphone adds a new level of complexity. I have been using adhesive gummy stuff (Joe's Sticky Stuff and Topstick are what I have been using) to attach the mic capsule directly to fabric, behind button holes, to skin and other places and it works pretty well. For the 4061 mics, I typically use a 'mole skin sandwich' and that provides a more suitable surface area to adhere the mic to talent when hiding the microphone. The 6061 requires some further consideration.

I read someplace claiming the 6061 was less susceptible to wind noise than the 4061, which does make some sense given its smaller capsule exposure. That was NOT my experience. I found it equally prone to rumble from wind noise as the 4061. However, given its tiny size, it took very little effort to attach and hide a small wind shield on the 6061--I used a Rycote furry wind cover intended for use with lav microphones.

The 6061 continues DPA's commitment to sonic excellence and delivers audio capture on par with the 4061. Its diminutive size gives sound engineers a new tool set for hiding lav microphones on talent in places and in ways the 4061 was simply too large for.

By Matthew H on December 16, 2019

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