A helmet microphone: Olympus ME52, used with Aker amp (white, on belt)

[Nicky]

Hi!

 

Now that I'm 501st I can start telling people what's what So I've tested my first TK build at CVI and I've gotten questions about where I put my Aker amp, if I was happy with having it on my belt on the outside of the armor, loud, with regards to feedback.

 

My response was: "no feedback, I use an unidirectional microphone directed straight to my mouth."

The Aker amp being on my right side makes it easy to turn it off, on and dial the volume to preference or situation, it also looks cool when I do that rather than reaching inside the chest plate to scratch something. Now on to the microphone:

 

 

Olympus ME52, 3.5mm unidirectional* dictaphone mike.

 

(* Wikipedia says "A unidirectional microphone is sensitive to sounds from only one direction.")

 

I'm the kind of person to look for something I'd picture in my head as adequate before asking if others are happy with their headset and just buy what everyone's happy about. I knew I wasn't going to be quiet one minute so I didn't want to try dozens of $5 solutions to be half happy about. This ME52 isn't a headset, rather a clip-on mike that I wouldn't use the clamps for. It cost me less than $20 on Amazon, comes with a mono 3.5mm cable that's at least long enough to go from the face to the knee, and other stuff I don't use.

 

What I liked about it was that in loud environments of the CVI and when talking to crowds of people not all paying attention (who better than a TK to orientate people in the queues ) I could boost the volume quite high and be heard without feedback. I've gotten good remarks about the voice sound but that's the aker speaker, although I'm sure they were too polite to tell me "we hear you breathing all the time" ^^ so I don't know about that. The microphone has to be angled and at an ideal distance to the mouth, so you must fix it to the helmet, between the teeth and the vocoder. That's what we call it, right? vocoder? lol

 

Unidirectional microphones in general are not the most popular microphones because it requires the speaker/singer to know the pickup pattern and hold the mike properly, and they're sometimes lower output. People may say the sound sounds tighter, less space, but that's subjective opinion. I don't believe ambient noise is good just because it sounds more normal. The advantages of unidirectional microphones are less feedback, less leak-in noise, higher signal-to-noise ratio, and allow higher gain.

 

Installation in the helmet: behind the vocoder. What I did is cut an extra ABS piece that looks like this: \__U__/ , glue it as in photo below, and just use the ridges on the ME52 to clip it on the U. Actually it's slightly a C=, and leaving no extra gap around the ME52 to keep it solid. Removal is hard, like it should to be so if I pull hard on the cable the mike doesn't fall off it just unplugs. If your face is not like mine then just angle the mike tip to where your mouth should be, you can also rotate it if you're a very sad person with a mouth that is off-axis.

 

(thumbnail)

 

Disadvantage of the whole thing: run a cable under the neck-seal, unplug every time you remove the helmet if you don't want a cable hanging at your neck. Putting the helmet back on takes about 15-20 seconds: bring the helmet to your chin, plug the cable onto the ME52, put the helmet on, pull the excess cable to hide it as it rarely "chooses" to hide inside the helmet.

 

But I liked this system so much at the CVI that I couldn't shut up! I say thumbs up.

 

Edited September 5, 2012 by Nicky

[Darth Hilarious]

Nice! If you can mount that baby onto a headset, your one disadvantage will be gone...

 

PS- looks like that Mando on the left got tired of your constant chatting- look where his gun is pointed!

[Dday[501st]]

Yeah, so much for a friendly picture, he is saying, "hey, take a picture of me shooting this TK, that would be funny, harharhar"

[Nicky]

Yeah he had my speaker yapping at his face for too long and my sister had to tell me to dial it down

 

I'm actually looking into getting a cable auto-reel, I know they make some for headphones and USB-power. Just a bit of cutting and soldering to the right length and finding a good place to glue or velcro it on will improve it significantly.

 

Edited September 5, 2012 by Nicky

[Dr.Senf]

What about a wireless mic and aker under your chest?

No visible speaker no cable to unplug and off you go.

[Darth Voorhees[501st]]

I prefer my amp under the chest plate. I rarely need to adjust it mid troop. I do however really like that mic. I have issues with my headset due to the helmet opening being a bit tight...i tend to get it caught on the headset ad it pulls it down...so i need to put the mic in my teeth to hold it while i put the helmet on which is annoying and sometimes will cause feedback! So having a mic mounted in the helmet, that the wire detaches from is something that could work for me. thanks for posting this, i may give it a try!

[Nicky]

I never tried chest-Aker but now I have that big white one I'm happy with, I had a small black one available but my candy bag took all the space.

 

I thought of wireless transmitter, and then I thought it would be more impedance questions, more batteries, more external factors, more hassle? I Googled for small audio transmitters that have small mono in transmitter and larger 3.5mm mono out receiver I could put in my chestplate, but didn't trust what I saw. Speaker is fine on the side, easier access to volume control, I could barely hear some people with the small black Aker in their chest*. Also it's easier to recognize myself on flickr

 

*because they stood so far away to avoid hearing damage from my speaker.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Nicky

[Darth Hilarious]

I find the chest-Aker is actually louder, as the whole chestplate basically becomes a speaker. I could never achieve enough volume to feed back when it was mounted on my belt.

 

Some of the problem you saw may have been caused by people not turning their amps up loud enough- "I can hear myself, so everyone else must be able to."

[Nicky]

True! I will try duct tape that thing see how loud it goes

[Mongoose[TK]]

quick question with the speaker in the chest. Do you guys point the speaker towards the armor or towards your chest?

[Darth Hilarious]

Outwards. Otherwise, it gets muffled into your chest.

[bigironvault]

I point it outwards. I like it under my chest as well because it makes it seem like I"m "talking" to that person. Simple setup and no problems with it so far. Wire goes from back of lid under armpit into iComm. Aker is super secure, hangs right there with a strip of velcro at the bottom to prevent it from dropping too much.

 

------------

Edited March 28, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[Nicky]

Well now I know what I want for xmas. Extra audio stuff Thanks for the inputs!

[NewInSanDiego]

For the newby, how many watts on the Aker? Seems there is more than one choice...

[kaa1304[TK]]

Removed by me, sorry, stupid question that I already knew the answer to!

Edited September 15, 2012 by kaa1304

[Eidrog]

Uh oh, for the other newbies out there, may I please ask what is a good aker amp? 10 Watts? 16 Watts? I hear a lot of people say they can't hear themselves with the amp in their armor - and for purchasing my first amp, I really don't want to get the wrong kind.

[kaa1304[TK]]

Although I'm a newbie I find hte 10w to be loud enough on half volume.

[Eidrog]

Gosh, thank you for the prompt reply!

 

I thought the 10w Aker would be ok - but hearing it from someone else is much more reassuring!

[TK6294]

The Aker MR1506 10watt is what most troopers buy if they are going to put it inside the chest armor. You can get by with the MR1505 12 watt amplifier if you are small chested or have big armor like AM. The 12 watt amps have better volume, clarity, and battery life. However the are thicker which can cause your armor to stick out a bit from your chest.

 

There is a voice amp selection program in my website to also help new troopers in making a selection.

 

-----------

 

Or you can always contact me direct and ask...

 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[Eidrog]

Thanks for the help!

 

I haven't recieved my armor yet (I'm a complete newbie!) But I'm planning on going with the RS Propmasters PVC armor, I'm 5'11", with a chest size of 37" and waist of 32."

 

Would I have enough room to fit the 12 watt amp? Better volume, clarity, and battery life all sound like good things!

 

But I would also like it if the amp distorted my voice, to make it sound more alien from my own. So I began to lean towards 10 watt. (Ableit, I could always change my voice the old-fahioned way. . . and actually talk differently)

 

Any advice would be hugely appreciated! With your experience, which amp do you think would work the best for me?

Edited September 22, 2012 by Eidrog

[TK6294]

Thanks for the help!

 

I haven't recieved my armor yet (I'm a complete newbie!) But I'm planning on going with the RS Propmasters PVC armor, I'm 5'11", with a chest size of 37" and waist of 32."

 

Would I have enough room to fit the 12 watt amp? Better volume, clarity, and battery life all sound like good things!

 

But I would also like it if the amp distorted my voice, to make it sound more alien from my own. So I began to lean towards 10 watt. (Ableit, I could always change my voice the old-fahioned way. . . and actually talk differently)

 

Any advice would be hugely appreciated! With your experience, which amp do you think would work the best for me?

 

I am not sure if the MR1505 will be too big for you or not because i have not personally messed around with the propmaster armor. So your best bet is the MR1506.

 

The iComm does add a small amount of "canned" effect and some back ground transmission static.

[Nicky]

As suggested by people in this thread, I fitted the Aker (white, 10w) inside the chest with an iComm. The Aker is supposedly a bit big for that but it went great for my kit.

 

Now this will answer some of the questions:

 

The iComm, meant to add static burst and voice activation/PTT to your Aker amp.

Like Jim says it adds effect to the voice audio as well. I would say it filters the frequencies so you get a much more high-mid, trebley sound that breaks through ambient noise better than the wider range sound you get from plugging your mike directly to the amp. It sounds worse, but you don't need to get a super high volume to be heard, and it works better for the trooper voice.

 

Now you can muffle some of the treble and increase the bass by sticking the speaker inside your chest plate, with your body and the ABS the sound resonates and gets even louder naturally like people wrote in this thread, the sound is muffled a bit but you begin with lots of treble.

 

Problem I had, it hurts my own ears as my ribcage and bones bring the sound to my skull and then to the helmet. So I had to play with the volume control to find the comfortable setting. I did get feedback when it was too loud near the helmet but I would never go on like this anyway.

 

Now a warning about the Olympus ME52 and the iComm used together, it is not an omnidirectional mike with high sensitivity so you will have 40db/mW and slightly lower output impedance... meaning that when you plug it in the iComm you can't just whisper somewhere near the mike you have to talk at least as loud and directly through for your voice to be as loud as the static bursts. For all I know the iComm does not preamplify the Mic In to your specific needs, nor did I find a volume control for the effects alone, so you have to make do or mod. I'm looking into it.

 

 

Regarding the amp alone distorting your voice, it does that a bit anyway. It's not a huge speaker with a very clean amplifier so frequencies will fall and you will sound a bit "low-fi", your head being in a plastic bucket also add a natural effect to your voice.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Nicky

[Eidrog]

Thanks for the replies! (And my apologies for the delayed thank-you!)

 

This has been a huge help! I've purchased an aker 10W amp, plus an icomm. I also picked up the ME52 unidirection mic, because it looks really handy just having the mic at the front of the helm (rahter than wearing a head set.) I'm really excited to get everything and test it out!

 

I've got my armor figured out. . . thanks to this thread I think I've got my audio set-up figured out. . . now all that's left is sorting out how the fans will work and I think I'll be ready to go!

[Kyro[TK]]

 

Olympus ME52, 3.5mm unidirectional* dictaphone mike.

 

 

I picked up this exact mic and tried it out. While it made my voice a lot louder and clearer than the mic that came with my iComm, it did have one flaw: the moment I started walking it was picking up the clacking of my armor. It also had a slight habit of picking up what some of my other troopers were saying if they got too close to me. So you may want to dampen the sound a bit if you use that particular mic.

[8BitBry]

Just ordered the icomm, aker 1506 and Memorex wireless. Thanks for shipping out same day, Jim!