NeumannBCM 705

Tonal profile

Hypercardioid moving-coil broadcast microphone with an integrated pop screen and elastic suspension; the green badge is Neumann's marker for a dynamic capsule.

Gain staging

1.7 mV/Pa, and Neumann prints the conversion themselves: -55.4 dB. That is 3.6 dB louder than an SM7B, still firmly in the territory where a cheap interface runs out of clean gain before the voice does. Two details make it easier to feed than the number suggests: its rated load impedance is 10 kohms rather than the usual 1 kohm, so it wants a modern high-impedance input; and its 18 dB-A self-noise, high for Neumann, is irrelevant on a dynamic at podcast distance because the preamp's noise dominates long before the capsule's.