Improved analysis of the electrically manifested distortions of condenser microphones

An improved analysis for the electrically manifested nonlinear distortions in condenser microphones is presented. The analysis shows that in typical condenser microphones excited by multisinusoidal sound signals, the second-order intermodulation components of frequencies ωr±ωs will be dominant. This result suggests that, rather than using the total harmonic distortion (THD), the use of the standard two- or three-tone tests for measurement of the nonlinear performance of condenser microphones would be more reliable and sensible.