AudioBanter.com - View Single Post

(Mike Rivers) wrote in message news:znr1057245055k@trad...
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.

Mike, I'm trying to figure out what happend about a year ago... g

We still package most appropriate mics in stereo pairs:

2x KM 184 = SKM184 (two mics in wooden box)
2x KM 183 = SKM183 (two mics in wooden box)
2x TLM 103 = TLM 103/Z ST (two mics, shock mounts, cables in metal
case)
2x U 87 Ai = U87Ai/Z ST (two mics, shock mounts, cables in metal case)

And so on.
The difference in price between two mics (or two mics and acessories)
and the stereo sets reflects the cost of the case.

In terms of "educating" people about the general lack of need to
"match" our mics, we've always done our best. However, the message
doesn't always stick because there is so much talk about
"hand-matching" or "hand-selecting" microphones out there. Ours are
hand matched or hand selected as well, but not for pairs. And they are
also checked by various machines, depending on what stage of
production they are in, what type of testing is done, etc. For
instance, the U 87Ai gets tested more than 60 different ways during
manufacture. So, the outcome is that for most purposes, any two of our
mics of the same model are ready to be used as a stereo pair.

I have spoken to some specialists where, due to their specific use of
the mics, closer matching might be necessary. This was not because of
standard stereo recording of music... And up to several years ago,
Neumann Berlin would accomodate most requests for such matching.
However, the decision was made to stop providing this service due to a
variety of factors. Mike, is this to what you were referring?

The truth of the matter is that very few people order the more
expensive stereo sets, in large part, I suppose, due to the sheer cost
of those sets. However, we sell a good number of the 103 sets, and a
large portion of the KM 184s we sell are in the stereo sets.

Respectfully,

Karl Winkler