Sennheiser
MD 421-II
Dynamic · Cardioid · 30–17,000 Hz · a rider regular
- The five-position bass roll-off wheel runs M to S — music to speech — and the setting between them is the one nobody agrees on.
- The stand clip is the most hated mount in live sound and has been since 1960; replacement clips outsell most microphones.
- In production since 1960 in essentially the same shape, which puts it in the same bracket of longevity as the SM58.
Frequency response
Read off Sennheiser’s published response graph and re-drawn on the fixed MicSense scale (20 Hz–20 kHz, −20 to +15 dB), so two microphones can be compared at a glance. Points between the entered coordinates are interpolated — no data has been invented to smooth the curve.
Polar pattern
Generated from the first-order directivity formula for cardioid. It illustrates the pattern type — it is not a measurement of this individual model.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Sennheiser |
|---|---|
| Model | MD 421-II |
| Type | Dynamic |
| Form factor | End-address |
| Polar pattern | Cardioid |
| Frequency range | 30–17,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | 2 mV/Pa · ≈ -54.0 dBV/Pa |
| Max SPL | — |
| Self-noise | — |
| Impedance | 200 Ω (nominal) |
| Connector | XLR3M |
| Powering | None (dynamic) |
| Weight | 385 g |
| Price tier | Pro |
| Introduced | 1960 |
Every figure above is from Sennheiser’s own published datasheet for this model — see the datasheet. A dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure; it does not mean zero.
What it gets used for
- Toms
- Guitar cab
- Horn / brass
- Bass cab
- Broadcast
MicSense tags microphones by the job on a live stage, not by studio category — so you can filter for “kick in” or “monitor vocal” instead of working backwards from “large-diaphragm condenser”.
Compare it against the alternatives.
MicSense lets you put up to four microphones side by side — spec table, overlaid response curves and polar diagrams on one screen. Free with a free Squaresmile account.