DPA 4060 & 4099 Core+

The 4099 Core+ with gooseneck and piano mount.

DPA’s new Core+ technology represents a significant upgrade for their already class‑leading miniature microphones.

Released in 1995, the DPA 4060 and 4061 not only propelled Danish Pro Audio (as DPA Microphones were known back then) onto the world stage, but also redefined expectations of what miniature microphones were capable of. By combining measurement microphone and hearing aid technology, DPA created a capsule for those microphones that became the foundation of their miniature microphones for many years. The 4099 supercardioid instrument microphone, released in 2009, married a 4060‑type capsule with an interference tube to produce the world’s first miniature shotgun microphone.

In 2018, DPA introduced their Core technology, with the aim of reducing harmonic distortion at higher sound pressure levels. That was incorporated in the d:screet 4060 and the d:vote 4099, which were released later that year. Most recently, in January 2025, DPA announced their new Core+ by DPA technology, which they describe as “a groundbreaking, patent‑pending innovation that sets a new standard for distortion‑free microphone sound”. At the same time, DPA also introduced the new MicroLock miniature locking connectors, which are backwards‑ and forwards‑compatible with DPA’s own existing MicroDot connectors, and an extensive and comprehensive range of new and revised stand and instrument mounts for 4060 and 4099 series microphones. The first microphone to benefit from DPA’s latest technological development is the DPA 4099 Core+, which made its debut at InfoComm in June 2025, and was followed, shortly thereafter, by the DPA 4060 Core+.

Evolving Technology

The driving force behind the Core and Core+ technologies was and is DPA Microphones’ desire to obtain the clearest possible sound from their microphones by minimising distortion and increasing dynamic range. The original Core development focused on the impedance converter that sits inside the electret microphone capsule. DPA engineers implemented a fully compensated circuit topology that linearised the performance of the impedance converter. This resulted in a significant reduction in distortion, increasing the SPL that the capsule could handle before its THD reaches 1% — the point at which a loss of sound quality will be perceived by most listeners.

DPA’s engineers then turned their attention to the analysis and correction of the distortion that arises from non‑linear displacement of the microphone capsule diaphragm. With a very small volume of air such as that located behind the diaphragm of a capacitor microphone, the forces acting on the diaphgram are different when the diaphgram is forced inwards compared to when it is being sucked outwards. The patent‑pending Core+ design corrects these non‑linearities in diaphragm displacement, right up to SPLs that approach the 1% THD level of the electronics. The combination of Core impedance converter linearisation and Core+ diaphragm linearisation is said to result in essentially unmeasurable distortion, from the level of the microphone capsule’s self‑noise up to a few dB below clipping.

4060

The frequency response ranges, sensitivity and typical A‑weighted equivalent noise levels of the original 4060, the Core Normal SPL and Core+ Normal SPL variants are identical. (Ever since the Core range, the 4060 is available in Normal, Loud and Extreme SPL versions; the 4099 comes in either Loud or Extreme SPL.) All three generations of 4060 have specified frequency responses of 20Hz‑20kHz (±2dB), with their removable soft boost grids adding a 3dB boost between 8‑20 kHz and their high boost grids adding a 10dB boost at 12kHz. Their sensitivities and self‑noise figures are also identical, at 20mV/Pa and 23dB A‑weighted,...