Neumann.Berlin KM 53 User's Manual
Contents
1. NEUMANN BERLIN gt gt THE MICROPHONE COMPANY KM 53 Miniature Microphone The postwar years in Germany were shaped by reconstruc tion and new developments in every field Progress was made in virtually all aspects of studio technology including radio broadcasting The introduction of frequency modulation dra matically improved the audio quality by expanding the trans mission bandwidth and largely eliminating system noise This new method allowed for the full audible range of sound to be transmitted intact In recording technology the shellac recording disk was re placed by the vinyl record moving pictures came to rely more and more on magnetic recording technology for sound and finally a new me dium took hold on the scene Television This placed addi tional demands on devices which now not only served to capture sound but in doing so inevitably also became visible Of course we are referring to the microphones With regards to the electro acoustical data Neumann micro phones already fulfilled the needs of the evolving studio tech nology Meeting high quality standards for this new medium was easy to achieve but the size of the microphones present ed new challenges the face of a performer would virtually disappear behind the bulk of an M 49 or U 47 The audience no longer wanted to just hear the artists they ultimately want ed to see them as well Neumann was thus faced with the Charakteristiken GT2. Because of this miniature microphone s tiny meas urements the small increase in directivity associated with a desired slight rise in the frequency curve occurs in a free sound field only at high frequencies The phenomenon is clearly illustrated in the diagrams The KM 53 laid the foundation for a successful line of small diameter microphones whose characteristics will be examined in the course of this series MD D O A ass
3. Sr S BREITES SS BE hi a LPL le F bjs 1000 HE 000Hz ieee 15000 Hr challenge of producing smaller microphones which while maintaining their established technical parameters could also be integrated harmoniously into the television picture sy D a A A practical solution was to take one the smallest exist ing studio microphone cap sules and install it in the smallest possible micro phone The pressure capsule that had been used so suc cessfully in the M 50 mi crophone where it was in tegrated into a plastic sphere proved to be more than a capable performer when placed in a cylindri cal housing of 21 mm in diameter Thus a new om nidirectional microphone made its world debut in 1953 as the KM 53 KM standing for Kleinmikro phon or little micro phone The capsule origi nally with a metal dia phragm was more capable of withstanding the intense heat generated by the bright stage lights of early television than any synthet ic film based membranes For the standards of that time the miniaturization was remarkable A bro chure noted Despite the dense concentration of miniature components in this microphone type a high degree of reliability is achieved The tube chosen for use in the KM 53 mini ature microphone was the already proven AC 701 k from Telefunken The microphone s acoustic characteristics were de scribed at the time as fol lows
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search