U 87 Ai

Tonal Profile

The transformer-coupled three-pattern reference. Max SPL is 117 dB in cardioid, 127 dB with pre-attenuation - low by modern standards, and the one number that surprises people.

Gain Staging Advice

Neumann publishes sensitivity per pattern - 20/28/22 mV/Pa for omni, cardioid and figure-8 - and we store the cardioid value, -31.1 dBV/Pa. The spread is worth reading: going from cardioid to omni drops output 2.9 dB while self-noise rises from 12 to 15 dB-A, so the pattern switch moves both ends of the dynamic range at once. With 117 dB max SPL and a 200 ohm transformer output, this microphone runs out of headroom before it runs out of gain - the opposite failure mode from everything else in this batch.