Sennheiser
e 901
Boundary · Half-cardioid (on a boundary) · 20–20,000 Hz · a rider regular
- A half-cardioid boundary condenser that lies on a cushion inside the kick drum — no stand, nothing to kick over.
- 0.5 mV/Pa from a condenser is remarkably quiet, and deliberately so: it lives at 130 dB SPL and above.
Frequency response
No response curve yet.
MicSense only draws a curve redrawn from a graph the manufacturer publishes — it never estimates one from the microphone’s class. No published graph has been redrawn for the e 901 yet, so the numbers are in the spec table below.
Polar pattern
A boundary mic hears only the half-space above the surface it lies on, so only that half is drawn; the line through the centre is the surface. Generated from the first-order directivity formula — an illustration of the type, not a measurement of this individual model.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Sennheiser |
|---|---|
| Model | e 901 |
| Type | Boundary |
| Form factor | Boundary |
| Polar pattern | Half-cardioid (on a boundary) (Cardioid) |
| Frequency range | 20–20,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | 0.5 mV/Pa · -66.0 dBV/Pa |
| Max SPL | — not published by the maker |
| Self-noise | — not published by the maker |
| Impedance | 50 Ω (< 100 Ω) |
| Connector | XLR3M |
| Powering | Phantom 48 V |
| Weight | 515 g |
Specifications: Sennheiser specifications page · last checked 2 Oct 2026. These are the maker’s published figures for this model. A dash never means zero: “not published by the maker” means the maker’s documents give no figure; “not yet checked” means MicSense has not confirmed one yet. Spotted an error? Tell us.
MicSense notes
| Price tier | Pro |
|---|---|
| Introduced | — not recorded |
Price tier and “a rider regular” are MicSense’s own judgement, not the maker’s.
What it gets used for
- Kick in
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”.
e 901 alternatives: closest in published specs
Based on published specifications only — always listen at soundcheck. These are the microphones in the MicSense library whose datasheet figures sit closest to the Sennheiser e 901’s for the same live job, with the reasons. It says nothing about how they sound.
Not compared for the Sennheiser e 901: max SPL not published by the maker · response curve not redrawn yet.
-
Shure
Beta 91A
- Same job: kick in
- Same type: boundary
- Same cardioid pattern
- Same form: boundary
- ≈ 18 dB more output — about 18 dB less gain
-
Audix
D6
- Same job: kick in
- Same cardioid pattern
- Dynamic instead of boundary
- End-address instead of boundary — mounts differently
- Needs no phantom power
- ≈ 4 dB more output — about 4 dB less gain
-
Sennheiser
e 602-II
- Same job: kick in
- Same cardioid pattern
- Dynamic instead of boundary
- End-address instead of boundary — mounts differently
- Needs no phantom power
- ≈ 6 dB less output — add about 6 dB gain
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.