AKG H500 Shock Mount for DAM Series E and ES Gooseneck Modules

AKG H500 Shock Mount: Twelve Decibels Between Desk and Microphone

The AKG H500 is an elastic shock mount designed for permanent installation of E and ES version gooseneck modules from the Discreet Acoustics Modular series, and AKG specifies it as attenuating structure-borne noise by 12 dB. It consists of a durable plastic shell with a flexible inner rubber boot, drops into a 2.0 in (50 mm) hole cut in a lectern, desk or table top, and carries the item number 6000H01900. AKG also credits it with allowing quick set up and break down of a sound system, so the gooseneck it holds can be lifted out rather than being permanently fixed. Nothing about it is electrical; it exists purely to break the mechanical path between a surface people touch and a microphone capsule that hears everything. In an installed speech system that single mechanical decision often decides whether the room sounds professional.

Why a Rubber Boot Beats a Rigid Fixing

Structure-borne noise is the problem this part solves, and it is the one most likely to be overlooked when a gooseneck is specified. Sound reaches a microphone through the air, but vibration also reaches it through whatever the microphone is bolted to, so a gooseneck screwed rigidly into a lectern picks up every knock on the reading surface, every page turned or slid, every pen set down and every footfall transmitted up a hollow plinth, arriving as low-frequency thumps that are far louder relative to a speaking voice than anyone expects. Suspending the gooseneck in a flexible rubber boot inside a rigid shell interrupts that path, because the rubber deforms instead of transmitting, and the 12 dB figure AKG publishes is the measured reduction. Twelve decibels is roughly a four-fold reduction in the pressure that reaches the capsule, which in practice turns an audible bang into a soft, ignorable bump.

Cutting the Hole and Knowing What Fits

Installation is a single 2.0 in (50 mm) hole in the mounting surface, which is the figure to give a joiner or a cabinet maker before any wood is cut. Getting the hole size right first time matters because a lectern top is usually a finished, veneered or upholstered surface that does not forgive a second attempt, and the mount is designed to be dropped in from above and then to hold the gooseneck within its boot. Compatibility is defined by AKG as the E and ES versions of the Discreet Acoustics Modular gooseneck range, which are the versions terminating in an integrated phantom power adapter rather than the plain screw-on installation type, so the module and the mount need to be specified together as a pair. AKG does not publish the gooseneck shaft diameter the boot accepts, nor any stand thread size or panel thickness range, so those figures are not quoted here and the safest approach is to confirm the module version rather than to measure a shaft.

Quick Removal and the Rooms It Serves

Removability is the operational property AKG highlights, describing the mount as allowing quick set up and break down of a sound system. A gooseneck that lifts out of its boot rather than being screwed down suits any surface that has more than one use, so a lectern that becomes a table for a reception, a council bench cleared for a hearing, or a conference top that has to be wiped down between sessions all benefit from a microphone that can be removed in seconds and returned to exactly the same position. Rooms that specify this mount include lecterns in lecture theatres and classrooms, boardroom and conference tables where laptops and papers thump the surface, council chambers and courtrooms with fixed speaking positions, pulpits in houses of worship, and broadcast or studio desks needing a flush gooseneck. Retrofitting is equally common, since an existing gooseneck position that picks up desk noise is fixed by cutting one hole and moving the module into a boot.