The
importance of cameras and film can’t be over stated, but the medium of sound is
just as important, as well as a chance to enhance and work with what cameras
capture. Whether it is a moving picture using dialogue to tell the story or a
showcase of still photos accompanied by music to evoke a certain emotion, the
importance of sound in the medium of taking pictures and film can’t be
neglected or over looked.
As
Brodwell, Thompson and Smith (2017:264-265) writes:
“Sound
is a powerful film technique for several reasons. For one thing, it engages a
distinct sense mode. Even before recorded sound was introduced in 1926, silent
films were accompanied by orchestra, organ, or piano. At a minimum, the music
filled in the silence and gave the spectator a more complete experience. More
significantly, the engagement of hearing opens the possibility of what the
Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein called “synchronization of senses”—making a
single rhythm or expressive quality bind together image and sound. The meshing
of image and sound appeals to something quite deep in human consciousness.
Babies spontaneously connect sounds with what they see. For us, if a sound and
image occur at the same moment, they tend to be perceived as one event, not
two. Just as our minds search for patterns in a shot or for causal patterns in
a narrative, we’re inclined to seek out patterns that will fuse lip movements
and speech. The power of musical structure to map onto visual structure is
evident not only in dance but also when fans of the Pink Floyd album The Dark
Side of the Moon play it back over The Wizard of Oz. Our bias toward
audio-visual blending governs both our everyday activities and our experiences
of arts like music, theatre, and film.”
Furthermore,
sound is also important because it is: “a crucial aspect of our everyday lives.
Just think about it – most of us communicate verbally, and it’s pretty hard to
understand body language alone. This makes sound the primary source of
information. Words help us be clear and hearing a voice can already tell a lot
about the message.” (Interactio 2022)
As
much as I like talking about cameras and film that I can get my hands on, I
would like to also pay my respects to everything and anything sound related
that I can get my hands on. Starting with the Sanyo IMP 500ohm Dynamic Japan
Microphone.
Or at least that is what I believe this microphone to
be. One piece of evidence come from an eBay listing by seha10 (2007). In this
listing that microphone is identical to the one I have presented in this post.
Everything from the metal plate with the on/off switch, the fact that it is
square as well as the typeface and the o and n in on has a significant gap
in-between. The writing underneath is also the same, with both saying IMP
500ohm Japan. They both also have the same shape and colour with the only
difference being that the listing’s microphone has a shorter cord.
eBay listing 1. Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/EsAAAOSwLbBlwW2P/s-l960.jpg |
eBay listing 2. Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/EqYAAOSwLbBlwW17/s-l1600.jpg |
eBay listing 4. Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PCAAAOSw9jtlwW2C/s-l960.jpg |
eBay listing 5. Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/66cAAOSwrwplwW2B/s-l960.jpg |
Second piece of evidence that this is a Sanyo mic is the exposed resonator cap, that a lot of other Sanyo microphones have. So with this and the listing we can assume that this is a Sanyo IMP 500ohm Dynamic Japan Microphone.
eBay listing 6. Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6QwAAOSwJ6BlwW1~/s-l1600.jpg |
Sanyo IMP 500ohm vintage mic. Source: https://rvb-img.reverb.com/image/upload/s--9UxYEiy5--/a_0/f_auto,t_large/v1709243195/v0yrf0mjzexbiwzq7loh.jpg |
Now
for the company’s history. Sanyo was founded in 1949 by Toshio Iue (Sanyo 2023).
It was formed after the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. was forced to break
up into smaller companies after World War II as a part of the occupations
decentralised policy. Most of the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.
operations were put in charge to Toshio Iue, who was Konosuke Matsushita’s
brother-in-law and partner of the Matsushita Electric company (Reference for
Business 2024).
Iue
named the company Sanyo, which means Three oceans. This refers to the Indian,
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, because: “the late Toshio Iue, earnest ambition to
generate business throughout the world, capitalizing on the company's three
core assets: excellent human resources, superior technologies and first-class
service.” (Sanyo 2023)
Sanyo
manufactured many electrical appliances, like the first plastic radio (1952)
and the first “pulsator type washing machine” (1954). By the 1970s Sanyo went
international and became in demand in North America when Sanyo started
manufacturing home audio equipment. (Annasha 2021).
Now
for this microphone. First the name, IMP stands for impedance, which is “the
“AC resistance” of audio signal voltages. Impedance controls the flow of the
audio signal. In order for a mic signal to travel optimally, the
microphone output impedance must “match” or “bridge” the input impedance (load
impedance) of its mic preamp.” (Fox 2024).
Or in other words it is “the amount of resistance inherent in the electrical system. It is measured in Ohms, often symbolized with the Greek character for Omega: Ω.” (Presonus 2023). There are also three classes of microphone impedance and the Sanyo IMP 500ohm Microphone falls under the low class (0Ω-600Ω) because well it is 500Ω. (Presonus 2023)
The Sanyo
IMP 500ohm Microphone is a dynamic microphone. Dynamic Microphones go back
to1897, invented by Ernst Siemens, but the design we know today was released in
1931, which was an improved design by Edward Wente and Albert Thuras (Simmons
2020).
What
does it mean that it is a dynamic microphone? Well, the best why is to quote the
Shure Incorporated’s (2012:5) Microphone Techniques for Live Sound
Reinforcement publication:
“Dynamic
microphones employ a diaphragm/voice coil/magnet assembly which forms a
miniature sound driven electrical generator. Sound waves strike a thin plastic
membrane (diaphragm) which vibrates in response. A small coil of wire (voice
coil) is attached to the rear of the diaphragm and vibrates with it. The voice
coil itself is surrounded by a magnetic field created by a small permanent
magnet. It is the motion of the voice coil in this magnetic field which generates
the electrical signal corresponding to the sound picked up by a dynamic
microphone. Dynamic microphones have relatively simple construction and are
therefore economical and rugged. They can provide excellent sound quality and
good specifications in all areas of microphone performance. In particular, they
can handle extremely high sound levels: it is almost impossible to overload a dynamic
microphone. In addition, dynamic microphones are relatively unaffected by extremes
of temperature or humidity. Dynamics are the type most widely used in general
sound reinforcement.”
This
microphone is also directional (“A microphone’s sensitivity to sound relative to
the direction or angle from which the sound arrives” Shure Incorporated (2012:8))
and each directional microphone has different polar patterns which “determines
the sensitivity at different angles…” and “defines how much of the signal will
be picked up by the microphone from different directions…” (Tobias 2016).
And
the Sanyo IMP 500ohm has a cardioid polar pattern. This pattern “is the most
common directional polar pattern, with the highest sensitivity to sound coming
in from directly in front of the microphone capsule (0º), practically no
sensitivity to sound coming directly from behind (180º), and a reduced
sensitivity to sound coming in from the sides (90º/270º)…” and is preferred for
studio and music recordings. (Willard 2018).
Cardioid polar pattern 3d. Source: https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/49957/where-microphone-captures-loudly-in-cardioid-polar-pattern |
Cardioid polar pattern. Source: https://www.soundguys.com/how-to-read-a-polar-pattern-chart-16272/ |
This microphone doesn’t have a grill, which is used to protect against dust, gusts of wind/breathes and moisture. It seems that a lot of these small type of Sanyo microphones doesn’t have grills. But some do and if this microphone did have one it most likely would’ve had a dome-shaped grill or at least a concave-up dome-shaped grille like the Shure SM57 (Fox 2018).
Shure SM57. Source: https://mynewmicrophone.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/mnm_300x300_Shure_SM57.jpg |
Traditionally
dynamic microphones come with a ball shaped grill (Fox 2018), but because of
the shape of the IMP 500ohm, a concave-up grill would be a better fit.
Sanyo model T146 IMP 500. Source: https://www.ebay.ph/itm/285585327692 |
The Sanyo
IMP 500ohm also has a resonator cap (possibly a HF resonator disk). “This is
common to dynamic microphones and sit above the diaphragm and The result of
these controlled resonances working together is a far better frequency response
than the diaphragm alone can provide. Although the quoted frequency response
for a typical dynamic microphone extends higher than that of a typical ribbon
microphone, once the dynamic microphone reaches its quoted upper limit the high
frequency roll-off is usually steeper. Fortunately, dynamic microphone
designers are usually able to place the high frequency roll-off somewhere above
12kHz, which is high enough to avoid terms like ‘dull’ and ‘muffled’ –
descriptions that would certainly be used if the same steep roll-off occurred
just a bit lower…” (Simmons 2020).
The
resonator cap is “used for several decades to refine the high frequency
response of microphones. These caps create a resonant cavity in front of the
diaphragm to extend and shape the high frequency response.” (Benjamin 2022)
This
microphone’s year of manufacture is a bit tricky and the best I can do is when
comparing it to other dynamic microphones’ manufacturing years and looking at
the evolution of the dynamic, we can assume that the Sanyo IMP 500ohm could be
anywhere around the 1970s. More evidence that we can assume that this
microphone was released in the 1970s is that it originally came with a cassette
tape recorder and that as mentioned above Sanyo released home audio equipment
in the 1970s.
This
microphone has a double prong aux jack. After testing it, I believe that the
bigger one is used to convert the sound wave into electrical signals and the
smaller one is to supply the power from whatever it is plugged into. (Or I
could be wrong and it is just two different aux jacks to adapt to different
recorders.)
Now
for a brief explanation on how this microphone works. The best explanation
comes from Sweetwater (2023), who writes:
“The
way dynamic microphones work is fairly simple. Inside the microphone capsule, a
magnet creates a magnetic field that surrounds a small, movable induction coil
that’s attached to a diaphragm. When sound waves enter the microphone, they
push and pull on the diaphragm, which causes the coil to move, creating a
voltage induced by the magnetic field. The resulting voltage is then increased
by the use of a transformer and leaves the microphone as mic-level signal.”
What
I like about the Sanyo IMP 500ohm is that it is small and lightweight. Even
though it is mostly made of plastic, it still looks slick and has a cool
vintage look.
And
if there is anything that this post proves is that there goes just as much
passion and engineering into sound as with photography and cinematography,
making it invaluable element in the entertainment industry.
Thank you for making it to the end and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did researching it. If you want to help this site out, please consider joining my Patreon: patreon.com/OnlineCurator
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List of sources:
Anasha. 2021. Sanyo Electric –
Story of a Japanese Company Which has Become a Subsidiary of Panasonic. https://www.yourtechstory.com/2021/09/01/sanyo-electric-story-of-a-japanese-company-which-has-become-a-subsidiary-of-panasonic/
Benjamin, G. 2022. Variable
Resonator Cap for User-Definable Microphone High Frequency Response. https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=21568
Bordwell, D, Thompson, K,
& Smith, J. 2017. Film art: an introduction. 11th ed. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Fox, A. 2024. Microphone
impedance: What is it and Why is it important? https://mynewmicrophone.com/microphone-impedance/
Fox, A. 2018. What are
microphone grills and why are they important? https://mynewmicrophone.com/microphone-grilles/
Interactio. 2022. The
Importance of Sound Quality. https://www.interactio.io/post/importance-of-sound-quality#:~:text=Sound%20is%20a%20crucial%20aspect,a%20lot%20about%20the%20message.
Presonus. 2023. What is
impedance, and how will it affect my recording? https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/210046073-What-is-impedance-and-how-will-it-affect-my-recording#:~:text=A%3A%20While%20checking%20out%20the,Greek%20character%20for%20Omega%3A%20%CE%A9.
Reference for Business. 2024. SANYO
Electric Co., Ltd. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description,
History, Background Information on SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/11/SANYO-Electric-Co-Ltd.html
Sanyo. 2023. About Sanyo. https://www.sanyo-av.com/us/learn/index.php
Seha10. 2007. Vintage Sanyo
IMP 500 Dynamic Microphone Made in Japan Black Microphones Tested. https://www.ebay.com/itm/145595981899?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-166996-619525-4&mkcid=2&itemid=145595981899&targetid=293946777986&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1028682&poi=&campaignid=20801105710&mkgroupid=156754162540&rlsatarget=pla-293946777986&abcId=&merchantid=115342529&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw_LOwBhBFEiwAmSEQAZEZn39Cge1aQKLrNv2hxWXbrxqTNk7ll0VOrFmCimUi8JXNJ10_dRoCigIQAvD_BwE
Shure incorporated. 2012. Microphone
Techniques for Live Sound Reinforcement. Illinois: Shure Incorperated.
Simmons, G. 2020. Dynamic
Microphones. https://www.audiotechnology.com/tutorials/dynamic-microphones
Sweetwater. 2023. Dynamic
Microphones: How do they work? https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/dynamic-microphones-how-do-they-work/
Tobias, T. 2016. Microphone
Polar Patterns. https://www.lewitt-audio.com/blog/polar-patterns
Willard, D. 2018. Understanding
Microphone Polar Patterns. https://www.azden.com/blog/understanding-microphone-polar-patterns/#:~:text=Cardioid%20(kar%2Ddee%2Doid,sides%20(90%C2%BA%2F270%C2%BA).
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