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Reviews For: Yaesu MD-200 Hi-Fi Desktop Microphone

Category: Microphones for ham radio

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Review Summary For : Yaesu MD-200 Hi-Fi Desktop Microphone
Reviews: 53MSRP: $399.00
Description:
Yaesu Newest Desktop Microphone, Hi-Fi
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.yaesu.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00534.6
KB1KVL Rating: 2007-12-03
Don't waste your time with it. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this mic NEW from ebay.I paid $305 for it. The mic is sharp looking. Very professional looking. The audio quality is good, however, the volume sux. I have it hooked up to a Yaesu 857D and the modulation meter reads very low. I asked for an "on the air" report. They told me the stock mic is much louder than the MD-200. As an example, on SSB I run the mic gain at 30 with the stock mic. The meter goes up to about 70% of the scale. With the fancy desk mic, the meter barely moves. I raised the mic gain to 100 and the MD-200 puts out about 1/2 of what the stock mic will do. It is barely adequate. I feel that I wasted $305 on that mic. The way that I feel, if the mic doesn't perform as good as the stock one, it deserves a big zero. It looks good but it doesn't have as good a volume as the stock mic. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS ONE.
2E0JPT Rating: 2007-11-06
excellent Time Owned: more than 12 months.
great mic and sounded good, looks are amazing, BUT if your going to spend this much buy a PR-40 like i have now.
PA7M Rating: 2007-09-30
Great microfoon the best Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Verry good audio whit FT-2000.
also whit HC-4 elem its simply manny thanks Yeasu.
W4AMP Rating: 2007-07-24
Great mike! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I run the mike with an FT2000, and it complements the rig well. I use the Parametric Equalizer on the FT2000 and have been getting great reports.I maximized the lows and midrange while dampening the higher frequencies. I also run about 5 db compression on the processor. At 3 kc tx width the mike is fantastic. Have not adjusted the FT200 element, curious as to the effect. Also nice to be able to add another element in the Future. Good job Yaesu!
KD5VSV Rating: 2007-06-10
Beautiful Mic Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Beautiful microphone.

Great audio, expensive but a pure joy to stare at and use.

Great feature to support two elements.

Of all the mics in my shack, I get the most comments about the MD-200 and my black special edition EV RE20.



----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KD5VSV on 2003-08-04

I had the MD-200 for a couple of weeks now and love it.

1) Visual impact is outstanding, love the design, look and feel.
2) Operation is easy to use, with buttons not spaced to close together or to far apart.
3)Build quality is excellent
4)Sound with stock mic element is very good providing a rich neutral sound
5)Very expensive, but compared to Electro-Voice RE-20 not that bad.
6)Transmit red led is a nice touch.

Extermely happy with the overall product.

73's


TF3JB Rating: 2007-03-27
An excellent desk microphone Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Returning to ham radio in January of 2007 after being QRT for a long time I did not have my Shure 444 any more. I had figured that I would simply buy a new one, should one be needed again. Well, not so good; they don’t make them anymore. After considerable research, I decided to buy the Yaesu MD-200-A8X desk microphone. It is indeed an expensive accessory and it cost me USD 375 to import one to this country. I admit, that to begin with I had rather a hard time to justify the cost to myself.

Well, not any more. I have not been disappointed. To begin with, I must say that it is a beautiful piece of equipment. The build quality is exceptional and it has a very stable base. I particularly like the feature that there is room inside the mike for two elements that are switchable at the bottom of the base. I added the HC-4 from Heil as a second element for DX work. I am currently using an FT-840 transceiver and I am pleased to report that comments on my audio are very favourable and frequent. I use the original element from Yaesu for local QSO’s and the HC-4 for DX. Concerning other features, the MD-200 has the usual PTT and LOCK switches plus UP and DOWN scan buttons. There is also a red led which illuminates when in TX mode. I find the microphone easy to operate and the feeling is now that it has always been in the shack.

To begin with, however, I got reports that the original element sounded somewhat “dark”. I was a little bit disappointed, since the original element is claimed to be of “...studio-quality optimized for high fidelity SSB operation”. I sought to adjust the VSPC (variable side pressure control) which allows adjustment of the frequency response of the element. That did help, but not quite. It was not until I opened up the base of the mike (you need to remove the circuit board) and switched the tiny “lo-cut” filter switch on the circuit board itself to a new position that the original element worked to my satisfaction. This switch is not mentioned in the paperwork that comes with the mike. But I seem to remember reading somewhere that the original position is tailored to Japanese voices; thus I reckon that the other position is tailored to western voices.

In closing, I can truly recommend this microphone to all hams. Yes, it is expensive but it is worth it. This is a microphone that I am going to keep. Should I take a break from ham radio again I am certainly not going to sell it off as I did with my old 444.
N4FRL Rating: 2006-11-05
Great but expensive Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The MD-200 mic is beautiful to look at and does a great job but everybody I talk to says they cannot tell much difference between it and the MD-100 I also have. Good quality feel and build. Buy it for the looks but save the difference and buy the MD-100 if you just want a good quality sound
DB1NK Rating: 2005-12-30
Great Mike ***** Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'm using the MD200 since 14 month on a FT-1000 Mark V/Field and it's fantastic. It's a great performer . Best reports i've got in the past 20 years on Ham-Radio. It sounds like a commercial Broadcasting mike. On the second line out I've conected a ETM DIGI-1 for HF-Weather FAX.
The Mark V without this mike is like a heavy PA with a dummyload behind... ;-)
Don't save your lousy money and go taking one today !
PS.: Have had the ICOM SM-8 on the IC 746. A perfect sounding mike too.
VR2XMC Rating: 2005-09-20
An excellent mic even with a non-Yaesu rig Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This mic is available in Hong Kong very cheap at USD239. I have used it with my ICOM 756pro3 through a connection of W2IHY eight band equalizer. The result is amazing and better than the original combination of SM20+pro3. The reason of using W2IHY equalizer to provide more mic gain. The output from MD200A8x is too small for the pro3. I shall use it with my K2 and the forthcoming FTDX 9000 as well.
K6SBA Rating: 2005-07-31
Great Addition to a Yaesu Station! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have tried several mics with my various MP series radios. I kept coming back to the Yaesu MD-100; until I tried an MD-200. This mic, along with the built-in audio tailoring of the MKV series, is all I need for great sounding audio. I have tried going the external equalizer route and have used various "third-party" mics. Nothing wrong with that approach, but it just adds more stuff to the desktop (this is not a problem for some!) With the stock cartridge, I get great reports. The mic is not cheap, but than either is alot of add-on external gear. It is also a well built good looking piece of equipment.

73 de K6SBA
David in Santa Barbara CA