Cardioid vs Supercardioid: Forty-One Cards Against Twelve, and Eleven With Numbers

Cardioid is what a microphone is unless somebody decided otherwise, though the comparison people search for treats it as one option of two. Of the 82 microphones gathered here, 41 answer the polar pattern field with that one word and nothing else, while 12 say supercardioid. Hypercardioid, the third name in every explanation of this subject, stands alone on exactly three cards.

Both patterns point forward and reject from behind. What separates them is where the rejection is deepest and what happens directly at the back, though only one of those two facts ever reaches a specification table. And the one that doesn't is the one that decides where a stage monitor can stand.

Forty-one cards say one word

The full census runs like this. 41 cards say cardioid alone, 12 say supercardioid alone, three say hypercardioid alone, one says omnidirectional alone and one says lobar. Another 15 list several patterns because the microphone switches between them, and 6 carry no polar pattern row at all, with one more answering Not Specified by Manufacturer.

That adds to 82, and the shape of it matters. A buyer comparing cardioid against supercardioid is comparing the default against a minority choice rather than two equally common options. Since the twelve supercardioids include four shotguns, where the pattern description is doing something else entirely, the handheld supercardioid population is smaller still. So the question as usually posed implies a balance that isn't there.

And one card is worth quoting for its hedge. It answers "Unidirectional (cardioid)", naming the category and then the pattern inside brackets, which is the only card in the set admitting the two are different levels of the same question. Since every other card picks one level and stays there, a reader sorting by that column is sorting two kinds of answer together.

The rejection is not where people think

A cardioid is deepest at 180 degrees, directly behind. A supercardioid is deepest at roughly 125 degrees on each side, and it has a small rear lobe that picks up again straight behind. That rear lobe is the whole practical difference, yet no specification table in this collection mentions it, and no manufacturer guide here does either.

Because the null moves, so does where a monitor wedge should sit. A cardioid rejects best from directly behind, whereas a supercardioid rejects best from the sides-behind while hearing a little of what's directly behind it. Neither is tighter in every direction, whatever "tighter" suggests, and that word does most of the damage in this comparison.

Hypercardioid moves the same features again, because the nulls sit nearer 110 degrees and the rear lobe grows. Supercardioid and hypercardioid differ from each other by less than either differs from cardioid, which is why any honest description of one has to describe all three. Though only one of the three is common enough here to build a row from.

Eleven cards out of 82 measure it

Directionality is named on almost every card and measured on almost none. Only 11 of the 82 publish an off-axis rejection figure, though those figures are the only place the pattern stops being a word. Everywhere else it's a label, and labels don't sort. Fewer still put a pattern name beside a measured figure, and on the three microphones in this collection whose listings do exactly that, the same capsule reads three to four decibels noisier in one switch position than in another, which is the closest the set comes to pricing a pattern in decibels rather than describing it in words. Three cards out of 82.

The dealer's card for a Shure SM58 gives 2 dB down at 60 degrees, 10 dB at 120 and 20 dB at 180 — the classic cardioid shape, deepest at the back. Those numbers come from the dealer's listing rather than from Shure, whose own guide carries no angle figures at all, which is worth stating because the table gets attributed to the manufacturer constantly.

Now the useful part. The same dealer's card for a Shure Beta 58A — a supercardioid from the same maker in the same body — publishes no off-axis figures at all, while its cardioid sibling publishes three. Comparing those two models comes down to 4.5 dB of sensitivity and a pattern name, because the quantity that would show the pattern difference isn't printed for the supercardioid.

Of the eleven that do publish angles, four are shotguns whose pattern reads supercardioid or lobar, while the rest are cardioids. Not one plain handheld supercardioid in this collection states its off-axis rejection. So the pattern that most needs a diagram to explain it is also the one least often measured, and that isn't a coincidence anybody has to explain away: a rear lobe is awkward to summarise in three numbers.

What the shotguns do to the word

Four shotgun microphones here answer supercardioid or supercardioid and lobar, and they aren't handheld vocal microphones by any stretch. A shotgun's directivity comes from an interference tube rather than from the capsule's own pattern, so the word describes the capsule while the tube does the work. It isn't wrong on the card, but it isn't comparable either.

That matters when the field is read as a column. A row sorted by polar pattern puts a RODE NTG3 next to a Sennheiser e945, and the two share a word and almost nothing else. A lavalier makes the opposite move, being usually omnidirectional because it can't be aimed, which shows the pattern following the job rather than the quality.

Fifteen cards refuse the question

15 cards list more than one pattern, and those microphones switch. A multi-pattern condenser has a cardioid mode and an omnidirectional one, sometimes a figure-of-eight, though on two cards here the row lists five. Nine patterns appear on one product page and five in its specification table, which is the same field answering differently in two places.

For anyone choosing between cardioid and supercardioid, those fifteen are simply outside the question, and so are the six with no pattern row at all. The comparison covers 53 of 82 cards, and only if the shotguns are allowed to count. Which is to say that a question about two words reaches two thirds of the shelf at best.

Which one the job asks for

A cardioid where the noise is behind the microphone, and a supercardioid where it's to the sides. That's the whole rule, and it follows from where the nulls sit rather than from any claim about tightness. Given how rarely either is measured on a card, the rule is also the only thing a buyer can act on.

Live vocals get the argument most often. A supercardioid rejects the wedge in front of the singer better, while a cardioid rejects the band behind them better, and which matters depends on the stage. Neither answer survives being carried to a different room. The pattern comes from how the capsule is vented, not from anything the buyer can adjust, so it's chosen at purchase and fixed after.

Off-axis colour deserves a mention no card provides. A pattern that rejects evenly across frequency sounds natural when someone moves off the axis, whereas one that rejects unevenly makes a moving singer change tone. Nothing in these 82 cards reports it, and nothing in the manufacturers' guides does either. It's the part of directionality that only listening settles.

What the cards answer about polar patterns

What is the difference between cardioid and supercardioid?

Where the rejection is deepest: a cardioid directly behind, a supercardioid around 125 degrees off, with a small rear lobe that picks up again straight back.

Is supercardioid better than cardioid?

Neither is better in every direction, because a supercardioid rejects from the sides better while rejecting from directly behind worse.

How many microphones here are supercardioid?

Twelve of 82 say supercardioid alone, four of those twelve are shotguns, and forty-one say cardioid.

What about hypercardioid?

Three cards in 82 give it as the only pattern while two more list it among several, and it moves the nulls closer to the front than a supercardioid does.

Do the cards say how much they reject?

Eleven of 82 publish off-axis figures, whereas the rest name a pattern and stop.

Sources

1. B&H Photo Video's specification markup for the Shure SM58, read cell by cell: the Cardioid pattern row and the Off-Axis Rejection figures of 2 dB at 60 degrees, 10 dB at 120 and 20 dB at 180.
2. B&H Photo Video's specification markup for the Shure Beta 58A: the Supercardioid pattern row, the sensitivity of −51.5 dBV/Pa, and the absence of any off-axis rejection figures.
3. Shure's own user guide for the Beta 58A: the supercardioid pattern, the 50 Hz to 16 kHz range and the sensitivity, published without any angle figures.
4. Shure's own user guide for the SM58: the cardioid pattern and the published specification, which likewise carries no off-axis numbers.
5. Pattern counts across the microphone class come from listings of 200 audio products collected the same way. How those are read and compared.

The listings above were read in August 2026, and the pattern names are the shop's own.

What we did not do

No polar response was measured for this page. Every figure above is a dealer's or a manufacturer's, and what we add is the census: how many microphones name each pattern, and how few put a number beside the name.