Neumann U87Ai STUDIO

At 87, the Neumann studio microphone is probably the best known and most widely used. Every sound engineer will immediately recognize it by its characteristic shape. It is an excellent choice for general studio, broadcast, film and television use. It is also used as the main microphone for capturing orchestras, as a spot microphone for individual instruments and as a vocal microphone for all kinds of singing and spoken word.

The double diaphragm is resiliently mounted and protected by a cover grid. A switch located under the grille selects the directional characteristics: spherical, cardioid and figure-of-eight. The selected characteristic is displayed in the window above the switch. The frequency waveform is the same for both the cardioid and figure-of-eight characteristics at higher frequencies. The microphone can be placed very close to the source without the sound becoming unnaturally sharp. The bass filter significantly reduces distortion at low frequencies even in the subsonic part of the spectrum.

The letter A in the microphone name indicates the newer generation of the U 87 - the original version was produced between 1967 and 1986. The modernization concerns only the electronic part, the microphone capsule is identical. Modern circuitry expands the possibilities of use - the U 87 Ai has 10 dB higher sensitivity and 3 dB better signal-to-noise ratio.

A switch on the back of the microphone reduces the sensitivity by 10 dB and when it is switched on, the U 87 Ai is able to capture distortion-free sound with a sound pressure of up to 127 dB. Another switch adjusts the frequency of the bass filter. This reduces low-frequency interference directly at the microphone amplifier input. This setting also compensates for the unavoidable increase in the level of the bass component when shooting from a short distance ("proximity effect"). With the cardioid characteristic, the frequency curve is balanced when sensing at a distance of 30 to 40 cm, with the figure-of-eight characteristic even between 15 and 20 cm.

The EA 87 suspension mount is included.