Review on Tonton Weatherproof Preamp Microphone Kit For Clear Sound Recording In CCTV Surveillance System by Alfonso Wilson

I use my IP cameras with a Network Video Recorder to watch my backyard wildlife. One camera, a Sunba 405 did not have a microphone so I purchased the Tonto to be able to hear as well as watch. I installed and tested the Tonto microphone onto the Sunba 405 PTZ camera and along the way also tried 2 other microphones because I was unhappy with the quality of the audio and I thought the microphone was to blame so I tried different mics. We use the microphones is to listen to backyard sounds from the birds and other wildlife through several backyard cameras all managed through a Network Video Recorder and displayed on a TV. We can select any camera and hear the audio through the TV. We were unhappy with the quality of the audio provided by the microphone but soon found the microphone was not the problem. After much testing, we discovered the IP camera was the issue, greatly limiting the audio bandwidth of the external microphones. all 3 of the microphones were decent performers with the Tonto perhaps being the lowest performer but still good (the 3 were MicroSeven, USA Sales, and Tonton). Read on for our test results.The Good: -- EASY INSTALL: The Sunba 405 camera came audio-ready with an audio RCA connector and a power connector on a dongle to attach to the microphone. The microphone was just "plug and play" plugged right into the camera. Also, the body of the microphone has a mounting hole to attach to a surface. -- NICE KIT & GOOD VALUE: The kit with the long cables and adapters are a very good value and allows one to locate the microphone where it can provide the best audio results. -- SOUND SENSITIVE: The mic picked up quiet high-frequency sounds. For example, I have ultrasonic mole repellers stakes in the ground that give off a high-frequency chirp every 60 seconds. The chirp is very quiet to the naked ear and the mic pics those up easily. -- EASY TO HEAR NATURES SOUNDS: I could hear doves, birds chirping, hummingbirds squawking at other hummingbirds and owls at night -- MISTAKENLY BLAMED THE MIC FOR POOR FIDELITY: I measured the audio bandwidth of the Sunba camera-external mic system and after much testing using special audio analysis software and a special test microphone came to the conclusion that the IP camera was causing the poor audio fidelity, NOT THE MICROPHONE! The camera cut off audio bandwidth at about 4KHz while the microphone bandwidth extends well past 12 Mhz. See the attached plot showing the narrow camera bandwidth and the much larger microphone bandwidth. The IP camera digitizes the analog audio from the microphone and this particular Sunba 405 camera uses a low sampling rate resulting in very poor fidelity when it's recreated and you listen to the audio. The bandwidth through the camera provides an audio quality more like an old dial-up analog princess phone. The microphone performance by itself, while by no means Hi-Fidelity is very functional and provides plenty of reasonable bandwidth to 9KHz and beyond to get good quality audio. IP Cameras don't really discuss their audio quality as they do low sampling resulting in poor audio as I discovered with the Sunba IP camera. -- THE 3rd BEST OF THREE MICS: I tried 3 different mics during my adventure to improve the IP camera's audio and all were also reasonable performers but the Tonto had the lesser performance but still plenty good to provide good audio should you have a camera that can pass on quality audio and the long cable kit makes it a good value.Conclusion: The Tonto microphone performs well on its own with bandwidth out to 20 Khz and very reasonable levels out to 9 KHz. If you feel your audio is not up to par, look at the camera first as the likely limitation.