KM 184

Tonal Profile

Small-diaphragm cardioid of the Series 180, transformerless, with a lift of a few dB around 9 kHz - the thing that distinguishes it from the flat KM 84 it replaced.

Gain Staging Advice

15 mV/Pa with a stated tolerance of plus or minus 1 dB, which converts to -36.5 dBV/Pa. Neumann prints no decibel figure here, although on the BCM 705 page the same company writes '1.7 mV/Pa = -55.4 dB'. The presentation is inconsistent between their own products; the arithmetic is not. Max SPL is 138 dB and there is no pad, so on close-miked brass or a snare the ceiling arrives long before the noise floor becomes an argument.