AT2050
microphone
$229
Used market: $180*
Specifications
5 of 7 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal Profile
Externally polarised dual-diaphragm side-address with three patterns, an 80 Hz high-pass and a 10 dB pad - the AT2035's multipattern sibling.
Gain Staging Advice
-42 dB re 1 V at 1 Pa, nine decibels quieter than the single-pattern AT2035 at -33. That is the price of the second diaphragm, and it is why a multipattern condenser is not automatically the safer buy: 17 dB SPL of self-noise against the AT2035's 12, plus 9 dB less output, means more preamp gain and more of the preamp's noise along with it. Like the AT2035 it runs on 11 to 52 V, so a sagging phantom rail does not starve it.
What the datasheet actually says
Quoted verbatim from the manufacturer’s own page, with the date we checked it. We state what is printed, not what anyone intended by it.
«Polar patterns: Cardioid, Omnidirectional, Figure-of-eight. Open circuit sensitivity: -42 dB (7.9 mV), re 1V at 1 Pa»
One open-circuit sensitivity is printed for a microphone with three switchable polar patterns, and the datasheet does not say which pattern it applies to. The same sheet does distinguish conditions elsewhere - 149 dB max SPL, 159 dB with the pad - so the omission is specific to sensitivity. It is not a small point: on a dual-diaphragm capsule the omnidirectional and figure-of-eight settings typically differ from cardioid by two to four decibels, and Neumann publishes 20/28/22 mV/Pa for the three patterns of the U 87 Ai rather than one figure. Treat -42 dB as the cardioid value, expect a few dB of movement when the switch moves, and note that the self-noise figure of 17 dB SPL carries exactly the same ambiguity.
checked 8/5/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~79% retained value). · checked on 8/5/2026