Neumann U87
The Neumann U87 is a condenser microphone manufactured by Georg Neumann GmbH since 1967 . It is the world's longest-produced microphone of this type.
Variants and features
The U87 is produced in the same housing shape as the U67, which is still tube-based . Right from the start, the U87 used the 48 volt phantom power that is still used today . Alternatively, the U87i could also be equipped with two batteries, since voltage sources for phantom power were still rare when the microphone was launched. The electronics of the U87 are simple: the entire circuit was built around a single field effect transistor , either the 2N3819 or the 2N4302. The microphone has a switchable directional characteristic ( omnidirectional , cardioid or figure eight) and is equipped with a switchable pre-attenuation (10 dB) and depth reduction to protect against impact noise . To this day it has an inductive output transformer . Thanks to its large diaphragm, the microphone can transmit sound pressure levels of up to 127 dB and is therefore also used to pick up wind instruments.
In the U87Ai, which was built from 1986, the battery compartment was omitted and a voltage converter board is installed instead . The voltage converter sets the polarization voltage of the microphone capsule to a value of 60 volts. As a result, the U87Ai delivers a much higher output level than the old model and at the same time is a few dB lower in noise .
use
The microphone is still part of the standard equipment of professional recording studios today . Among other things, it was used as a vocal microphone for numerous productions of pop music.
Web links
- Description of the current model U 87 Ai on neumann.com
- Information on historical variants of the U 87 at neumann.com