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Ever wonder why so much of the world's great high-fidelity equipment - Blaupunkt, Grundig, Braun, Nordmende, Saba, Loewe Opta, Graetz, Neumann, Telefunken, Sennheiser, AKG, Schoeps, (etc.) - comes from a tiny area in Europe - predominantly Germany and Austria?
I spoke with Mr. Uwe Sattler of SennheiserUSA; he attributes it to a legacy of World War II. At its conclusion, the Allied victors were more than respectful of the propaganda potential of radio; they feared it. AM radio was capable of covering large regions, on a clear day it could blanket central Europe. To prevent such transmissions, the Allies prohibited short and medium wave broadcasts from those countries; additionally they forbade any form of networking capable of relaying programs over a wide area. Only local and regional broadcasting was allowed.
This forced the Germans and Austrians to seek out higher radio frequencies. Necessity being a mother, lo and behold, they found the FM spectrum was not only free of artifacts that compromised AM broadcasts, it could accurately broadcast the full fidelity of contemporary recordings, which were predominantly radio dramas and music. You must realize that at this time, carbon, dynamic and ribbon mics were considered state of the art. The high impedance circuits of condensers made manufacturing them difficult, nonetheless the FM performance prompted several manufacturers to produce high quality condenser microphones, recorders, acetate-cutting lathes, transmitters and receivers capable of faithful reproduction of live performances, and high fidelity was born. When the prohibition was lifted in the late 1940's, the hi-fi movement took on steam and neighboring countries were attracted to the technology. These companies' creations then changed the world.
OK, OK, OK, I hear you. Enough already with the history lecture! Where's the review?? Here it is. Georg (pronounced Gay-org) Neumann's M150 is a new transformerless tube omni-directional microphone that is the successor to the coveted M50, combining all the integrity of the original design with the technical developments of the past 50 years to deliver faithful reproduction of an acoustic field.
These boys are HUGE, weighing in at 1 3/4 pounds each. Inspecting one under a bright light I spied the black sphere inside the grille, the front of which has an opening revealing a small diaphragm, almost as small as those used in the KM series (Neumann specs it at a diameter of 12mm). I mounted it in its familiar TLM-style shockmount cage and paired it up with a U87 on our evening newscast anchor here at NPR. I started with the 87, listened to it for a minute, then switched to the M150 and felt my mouth fall open . . .
Folks, I gotta tell you (at least when it comes to recording audio), size really DOES matter. The bigger the sound the better. This mic is capable of bone conductance, a term I use to describe when the audio is so focused it makes your skeleton shift underneath your skin. Switching back to the U87, this phenomenon disappeared. The anchor's voice became one-third smaller. The change in size was as if I'd switched from a pair of bookshelf speakers to control room monitors. Crisp and clear, warm, fudge-rich midrange, yet tight. Yum. Let's hear it on music!
I wanted A-B comparisons with familiar tools, so I paired the usual suspects in a near-coincident setting with the M150. First, a stock U87 on a pop female singer, one foot away, mouth level. I ran each mic to separate tracks of an RDAT through Focusrite "Red" Series mic preamps into a Prism A/D converter. This allowed me to switch back and forth between tracks of the tape with the same performance on a variety of monitoring systems. On each set of speakers, the M150 sounded, well, more expensive. I noted that it was not only bigger but distinctly clearer than the U87. Yeah, I know, it's not a scientific test. Sorta like comparing apples to pomegranates - both fruits but each in a different genus.
OK, let's do something reasonable - a close-miked PNO (piano, in longhand). I near-coincided a "Mr. Big" M150 with a "Ms. Sleek" KM63, two Neumann tube mics peeking over the side of a Steinway "B" piano's waist, aimed at the hammers. In this application I noticed distinct similarities; both were bright and full. Here I determined what it is about the M150 that I like so much - the tight MIDRANGE. It's a sonorous richness in the frequencies I usually want to get rid of - that tubby area between 180Hz to 300Hz. The bass was also tighter than the KM 63 - perhaps because of the 16Hz filter that is employed even when "linear" is selected on the M150.
I sent one M150 over to the Kennedy Center where NPR engineer Brian Jarboe used it on our guest's saxophone for a "Billy Taylor Jazz at the Kennedy Center" concert. We tight-mike everything, like in a recording studio. Dr. Taylor's group uses the very same piano, acoustic bass and drum kit for each show, the only variation is the guest artist. Since this NPR program is a series, the same mics (a mix of AKGs, Neumanns, Sennheisers, Earthworks and B&Ks) and setup are used for consistency. We make it sparkle with tons of violent eq (+8 @ 10kHz on some things, -16 @ 1200Hz on others (!)), compression and effects. Well, I gotta tell you. The M150 was so big and clear that it made the rest of the mix sound somewhat "veiled", as though there was a gauze sheet between the instruments and their mics. A little 7kHz was rolled off the M150 just so it could play with the others! I'm keeping this show master in my home collection.
My last test was to use the M150s for what they have actually been designed for - stereo pickup from a distance. I spaced my pair 15 feet from the Steinway, six feet up. I also set up a pair of my standard choice, identical location, plugged directly into the Studer D950S mic preamps and A to D converters. I recorded the piano for 15 minutes, then listened to all these recordings in the studio, at home, in my car. I played the tapes for a few of my music engineer pals. Folks, while I have attempted to convey the sound of the M150 microphone to you in familiar technical terms, I believe that one friend's response is the most important information I can pass on to you. He said, in an awed voice, "They sound LOVELY."
For futher information, browse the Neumann Web site at http://www.neumann.com