This video is for Louis Rossmann, who makes right-to-repair advocacy videos on YouTube and gets consistently good sound. He was looking to upgrade his older Sennheiser G3 wireless system (paired with a Zoom F3) and asked me to check the self-noise performance of Sennheiser's newer EW-DP wireless system, specifically the SKP plug-on transmitter, which can record directly in 32-bit float.

First, a clinical self-noise test: a dummy XLR connector with a 150-ohm resistor across pins 2 and 3 (simulating a mic's load without capturing actual sound) measured both the SKP and the Zoom F3 at -129 dB RMS max — very low self-noise, essentially identical performance.

Then a more real-world test: a Sennheiser MKH50 boomed about 18 inches (45cm) away, recording dialogue plus some silence, connected to both the SKP and the F3. Normalized to -26 LUFS mono (equivalent to -23 LUFS stereo), the measured silent-portion noise floor came in at -60 dB RMS max for both — also very good, and essentially the same between the two.

So there's the answer for Louis: performance-wise, the SKP is excellent. As it happened, right as I finished this test, Louis messaged that he was sticking with his old setup because his SKP unit wouldn't record with the particular micro SD card he tried. This is a common quirk — audio recorders can be surprisingly picky about SD cards, and interestingly, they often work better with cheaper, simpler cards than with expensive high-performance ones. My test unit works fine with a basic $15 SanDisk card. Sorry the SKP didn't work out this time, Louis — keep making great sound.