Asked to think of aggressive environments in which the typical microphone might find itself, I immediately envision the sweaty, beer-soaked atmosphere of a Les Savy Fav show I attended about two years ago at Brooklyn's Williamsburg Music Hall, a frightening evening during which an innocent SM58 was subject to many forms of abuse from frontman Tim Harrington, including bashing, various liquid immersion, throwing, swallowing and what I'll simply describe as "frottage." The new Sennheiser MO 2000 Optical Microphone probably wouldn't survive any of that sort of treatment.

Where the MO 2000 is a viking, however, is in environments in which the neither the SM58 no most humans would likely survive. I'm talking about research laboratories and hyperbaric chambers flooded with aggressively corrosive and/or potential explosive gasses, liquids, salts, etc. The world's first optical microphone to be certified by EMI/EMC laboratories for use in potentially explosive atmospheres, the MO 2000 is perfectly suited to all manner of scientific and medical applications.

Way in which the Sennheiser MO 2000 is unlike Tim Harrington: it does not disturb its surrounding medium. Since the optical transducer does not rely on any electrical components, the MO 2000 does not introduce any electro-magnetic field into the environment in which it is in use, making it perfect for scientific measurement.

Way in which the Sennheiser MO 2000 is just like Tim Harrington: it can withstand many types of corrosive liquids and gasses, thanks to its plastic housing.

Sennheiser has been pioneering application-based forms of the the LED-based optical transducer. They explain the operating principal thusly:

"In the optical microphone, light from a light-emitting diode (LED) is directed onto a reflective diaphragm via a fiber optic cable (transmitter fiber optic cable). The diaphragm reflects part of the light into a receiver fiber optic cable. If the diaphragm is moved by sound signals, the reflected light beam is deflected, with the result that more or less light is coupled into the receiver fiber optic cable. At the end of the receiver fiber optic cable, a photodiode converts the light intensity variations into electrical signals."

Doesn't science rock?