is there anything better than ME66/K6 from battery powered shotgun mics?

Yep, the Rode NTG-2, you can power it with either an internal battery or from an external 48volt phantom supply.
Always use a name brand alkaline battery.

Register your NTG-2 on line for your free 10yr warranty and if you swap from using the battery to 48 volts, don't leave the battery installed and forget about it. If it goes flat and leaks, that's not covered by the warranty.

Cheers.

Like Allen said NTG2 is a good choice. Higher end shotgun mics require phantom. you could buy a device to power it.

The answer is no, the Senni is the standard. With that being said I LOVE my NTG2 and it goes everywhere with me and has never let me down.

I love and use the ME66/K6 - it hasn't complained since I bought it in 2008.

The answer is no,
I thought so,
NTG2 is nice, but ME66 sounds better to my ear,
thanks guys!

I thought so,
NTG2 is nice, but ME66 sounds better to my ear,
thanks guys! That's a matter of taste - the ME66 sounds very harsh and lacking in richness to my ears, plus it misbehaves severely in reflective environments such as location interiors.

Just bought my second, 2ndHand unused Senni 66 with K6, £220GB, that's like £150 reduction. Very happy.

Grazie

That's a matter of taste - the ME66 sounds very harsh and lacking in richness to my ears, plus it misbehaves severely in reflective environments such as location interiors.

I agree with that.

Cheers.

I have both the Senni and the NTG2. i also have the NTG 3, which needs phantom power.

At the time I bought the Senni, it was the mic to have. Not to long afterwards, the NTG2 came to favor too.

I use both at times. Definitely, in a closed room, the NTG2 works better. The Senni seems to pick up more echo and is a bit sharper or harsher in tone. That works in its favor in exterior shooting, as the NTG2 seems to lose outdoors, IMHO.

The NTG3 is superior to both, in both shooting situations, in my opinion, but you pay much more for it.

The NTG3 is superior to both, in both shooting situations, in my opinion, but you pay much more for it.
NTG3 is a great mic, but as well as many other great mics it needs phantom and can't be powered from the battery, it is possible to add inline phantom power supply, but i need to keep setup to a minimum, otherwise i would go with Schoeps CMIT, or Nuemann KMR series,
thanks again!

That's a matter of taste - the ME66 sounds very harsh and lacking in richness to my ears, plus it misbehaves severely in reflective environments such as location interiors.

I will second EVERYTHING Steve and Chris say. The ME66 IS the standard in live news and most ENG/EFP work up here in Canada but that is mostly because it WAS the standard. When the ME66 was released, nothing else came close for the dollar. The national public broadcaster I worked at for over 5 years and every other news agency in my home town equipped their crews with the ME66 as the go-to handheld interview mic for television.

Now, Rode has basically "borrowed" the best of what the ME66 had to offer, lowered the bump in the high mids that made the original sound "gritty" to my ears and MASSIVELY lowered the cost. I would suggest there is a BIT of output drop compared to the ME66 but that could well be a result of the reduction of the "human vocal bump" of the ME66.

I sold my ME66 and bought 2 NTG2s and had cash left over.

Of course, your mileage may vary. The NTG series are pretty innovative... I'm looking at eventually getting the NTG3 (based again on Sennheiser's 416 mic) as a boom mic. Just don't have much need right now...

Like many of the others on this thread I highly recommend the Rode NTG2. I have owned it for several years now and it does an excellent job. I also have the Rode Videomic Pro and original Videomic.

The audio technica's are also worth a listen. I've had an 815 for years now and it's a touch beast. It's a little brighter than a 416, but has a little more 'reach'.