Having had the Sennheiser 416 for a while and very happy with it for dialogue capture for videos, I was not as happy as I thought I was going to be when using it for voiceover. Don't get me wrong, this is an industry standard for VO, but in my use case, I don't have the space usage or money to have a treated studio space, and instead have a VoxBox Studio, a fantastic portable treated box, that you place your mic in, with dimensions of 60 x 60 x 60cm, (a great piece of kit that is incredible at removing room reflections without sounding boxy).
I found that using my 416 in the VoxBox, led to some frequencies sounding harsh and 'shouty'. The DPA, being smaller, and having interference tubes all the way round the barrel, performs much better in the VoxBox, with no boosted, unpleasant, shouty frequencies. The DPA 2017 has a less baked in tuning than the Sennheiser 416, with it's pronounced lows and high frequencies, and has a more natural sound that takes EQ very well. The 416 needs more room to breathe, whereas, for my use case, in a more enclosed recording space, the DPA 2017 sounds fantastic, as well as being a fantastic dialogue capture mic for video work. As much as I love the 416, the DPA is more versatile microphone. I highly recommend it.
