AKG LC617 MD Black Omnidirectional Lapel Microphone with Tie Clip

AKG LC617 MD Black: A Lapel Microphone Hardened Against Wireless Interference

The AKG LC617 MD is a back-electret condenser omnidirectional lapel microphone specified for presenters and actors, publishing 7 mV/Pa sensitivity, a 115 dB maximum SPL at 1 percent distortion, a 60 dB-A signal-to-noise ratio and a 34 dB-A equivalent noise level across a 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz response. Its defining feature is high RF rejection, engineered specifically against interference from the 2.4 GHz wireless traffic that now saturates every conference centre and campus. Electrically it presents a 200 ohm source into a recommended 2,000 ohm load and runs from a wide 1 to 10 V supply, terminating in a two-pin micro-coaxial screw connector with the MDA1 adapter connector supplied. In black, with a tie clip in the box, it is aimed squarely at business dress.

What High RF Rejection Is Protecting You From

Radio-frequency immunity is the specification this microphone was redesigned around, and it addresses a problem that did not exist when earlier lapel microphones were designed. A lavalier cable is a thin unshielded-looking conductor running a metre down a body to a transmitter, and it behaves as an antenna for any strong nearby field, so the 2.4 GHz emissions from wireless access points, phones, tablets and presentation clickers get demodulated into audible buzz and clicking at the bodypack input. Deliberate shielding of the capsule housing and the lead is what suppresses that, and the difference is most obvious in exactly the rooms this microphone is sold into, which are conference venues with dense wireless coverage and hundreds of devices in the audience. An AV technician who has chased an unexplained ticking noise through a lectern channel will recognise immediately what this specification is worth.

The Tie Clip and Why the Finish Ships With a Mount

Supplied mounting hardware differs by finish in this model, and the black version comes with a tie clip. That is a deliberate pairing rather than an accident of packaging: a tie clip grips a shirt placket, a necktie or a lapel edge at a fixed angle and presents the capsule outward, which is exactly how a microphone gets worn with business dress and exactly where a black finish disappears against a dark suit, a clerical shirt or a legal gown. The beige version of the same microphone instead ships with a cable clip suited to mask, wig and costume mounting, because that finish is bought for a different job. Choosing the finish therefore chooses the mount, and ordering the wrong one leaves a technician improvising a fixing on the morning of an event.

Omnidirectional Response and the Turning Speaker

An omnidirectional capsule responds equally in every direction, and on a lapel that property solves the most common complaint about clip-on microphones. Because a lapel sits well off the axis of the mouth, any directional element mounted there loses level and brightness the moment a speaker turns their head to look at a slide, glance at notes or address a questioner in the room, and the result is a voice that pumps in and out through a presentation. An omnidirectional element hears the mouth at essentially the same tone whichever way the head is pointing, which keeps a lecture capture or a conference recording even without an operator riding a fader. The honest trade-off is that omnidirectional pickup gives no rejection of a nearby loudspeaker, so rooms running the microphone hot into close reinforcement need to manage that with equalization and speaker placement instead.

Level Handling, Powering and the Termination Choice

Maximum SPL of 115 dB at 1 percent distortion is the correct figure for a speech and projected stage voice rather than a close-mounted instrument, and it is a lower number than the miniature theatre capsules elsewhere in this catalogue precisely because this microphone is optimised for a lapel position rather than a hairline one. The 1 to 10 V operating window is generously wide, which matters when a microphone has to serve a mixed inventory of bodypack transmitters whose supply voltages differ, and the 200 ohm source impedance into a 2,000 ohm recommended load keeps the signal robust down a body-worn cable. Termination is a two-pin micro-coaxial screw connector, with the transmitter-specific plug living in a threaded adapter rather than being hard-wired, and the MDA1 adapter connector is supplied so the microphone is usable on arrival. Moisture-resistant construction covers perspiration under stage and studio lighting.

Contents and the Rooms This Microphone Lives In

Alongside the microphone and the MDA1 adapter, the box holds a foam windscreen, the tie clip and a zip storage bag. Corporate keynote and breakout presenters, university lecturers feeding a capture system, courtroom and hearing-room speakers building a formal record, conference panellists and broadcast interview talent are where this microphone spends its working life. All of those environments share the two conditions it was built for, which are business or formal dress that a black finish suits and a dense wireless environment that a shielded lapel microphone survives. Rental and production inventories add a third reason, since the adapter-based termination lets one stock of microphones serve whatever transmitter platform a given job supplies.