You can constantly wear them as a high quality pair of earphones, and be seconds away from the record button should you need to capture your surroundings. They’re built for convenient and at-your-fingertip stealth recording. For the sound of course, but for the design as well. That said, by employing some slight EQ adjustments we were able to make the recordings sound similar in our studio.Īlthough our tests revealed that both microphones sound excellent and are quite close overall, we have a slight preference for the…. The Sennheiser has a very pleasant and balanced sound throughout the whole audio spectrum, while the Roland CS-10EM had a slight boost in the lower end and was missing some of the Sennheiser’s “air”. They both performed beautifully in capturing rich and immersive 3D binaural audio, with a surprisingly low noise floor. We spent a lot of time testing both devices in a variety of recordings. The Sennheiser can record up to 24 bits 48 kHz, while the CS-10EM is limited only by the unit you record with. The frequency response from the Sennheiser range from 30 Hz to 20 kHz while the CS-10EM goes from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The Sennheiser also uses an inline microphone in its remote for call and chat functionality. It also includes a Situational Awareness function, which is an active noise cancellation system that can easily be switched on and off.īoth headsets use a pair of omnidirectional microphones - one in each earpiece. The device uses high quality Apogee’s microphone preamps and takes care of the A/D and D/A conversion. No special recorder is required to use this headset it’s made to be used with an IOS device running version 10.3 or later, using the lightning connector. The Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset also works like a pair of microphone-equipped earphones… but it’s more than that.

If you want to try the CS-10EM, make sure your recorder provides plugin power. Our old Zoom H6 could’ve done the trick as well. For our test we used the auxiliary input of our Sound Devices MixPre 3. This clever design allows simultaneous monitoring of your recordings, using the earphone jack of the recorder.īeing powered by the recorder, the CS-10EM needs 2 to 10 volts of plugin power from the microphone jack. The Roland CS-10EM is basically a pair of microphone-equipped earphones. We matched recording levels as close as possible, while disabling all processing and limiting to hear how they capture sound on an equal playing field… but first(!) let’s talk about their respective designs. To make an accurate comparison, we had to make simultaneous recordings from the same spacial placement. Then we were lucky enough to get our hands on a brand new shiny pair of Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset only a few weeks after they came out. We know that they do a super job and they’re just unbeatable for the price. We’ve already owned a trusty pair of Roland CS-10EM’s for a while. Recording with an in-ear device will make you blend in the crowd people think you’re just listening to music. The sight of a conventional microphone can make people overly interested, uncomfortable or even suspicious. In some situations, going undercover is vital to keep the recording natural. We also really appreciate the idea of being able to record unnoticed. After all, we all already carry one with us, right? We love the idea of not having to carry a second head with us when we want to record audio.

So you’re thinking about investing in a solution for binaural recordings, but you’re not quite sure about those expensive and cumbersome dummy heads? Then stay with us, as we compare two affordable solutions, the Roland CS-10EM and the brand new Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset. A COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF ROLAND CS-10EM VS SENNHEISER AMBEO IN-EAR BINAURAL MICROPHONES.

Binaural microphone earbuds