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Modern Acoustic and Electronic Design of Studio Condenser Microphones

Condenser microphones have been used for more than 70 years in professional audio recording applications, due to their good frequency response, extended frequency range and wide dynamic range. If all parameters are properly designed, the microphone capsule will also have an excellent transient response. The basic design of studio microphone capsules today dates back several decades. Some capsules have been in production unchanged for 50 years or more. Nevertheless, the technical performance of microphones has been improved step by step by continued refinement of the associated electronic circuitry (e.g. tubes versus semiconductors, FET technology improvements, circuitry design aspects, etc.). Not until a few years ago did the quality of the electronics finally match that of the capsule in terms of self-noise level and dynamic range. However, the capsule design has also been improved by making use of technological advances and modern materials.

Author: Peus, Stephan
Affiliation: Georg Neumann GmbH, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
AES Convention:116 (May 2004) Paper Number:6131 Import into BibTeX
Subject:Microphones

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