AudioBanter.com - View Single Post

In article writes:

The salesperson told me that tolerances in Neumann mics are
so close that there is no need to have a specially matched pair

He's full of ****... they don't "match" them period... at least for US
distribution they don't.

Until about a year ago, while they didn't actually "match" microphones
(for the above reason) they did package mics as a pair for a premium
price. Different case, different vibe. Not necessary, really, but the
customers asked, so they responded. I guess they eventually realized
that it was silly and they'd rather educate the customer and not be
bothered with the packaging and paperwork for a measly hundred bucks.

I have two KM84's which I frequently use as a stereo pair and I just
balanced them first by watching the meters and then by ear. I don't
think I've ever set the recording gain more than maybe 1.5 dB apart
between channels. I occasionally use a preamp with stepped rather than
adjustable gain, but that goes into something with continuously
adjustable gain so I don't have to worry about a slight gain mismatch
at the mic. I'm not afraid to turn knobs off "zero" if it doesn't
sound right. And since X-Y recording is mostly off axis (where they
don't measure frequency response when "matching" mics) matching
wouldn't really help that either.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )