NeumannTLM 170 R
microphone
New retail price (MSRP)
$3,395
Used market: $2,650*
Specifications
1 of 9 values have a recorded source- Connectors
- XLR 3-Pin Male·
- Built-in converter
- no·
- Self-noise
- 14·
- Transducer
- Condenser True·
- Sensitivity
- -41.9✓
- Output impedance
- 50·
- Phantom power required
- yes·
- Connection
- XLR-Only·
- Indexable Locales
- ·
Expert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal profile
The studio-mounted five-pattern Neumann: flat and unflattering by design, with a diffuse-field-corrected top rather than a presence peak. It is a measurement-adjacent large diaphragm, used where the room is supposed to be heard.
Gain staging
-41.9 dBV/Pa is quiet for a large diaphragm - about 8 dB below a TLM 103. On a soft source at a metre you will be asking a preamp for 55-60 dB, so its own noise floor starts to matter.
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.
«Sensitivity at 1 kHz into 1 kohm 8 mV/Pa ± 1 dB»
One sensitivity figure, and one self-noise figure of 14 dB-A, stand for all five switchable patterns (omni, wide cardioid, cardioid, hypercardioid, figure-8); the sheet does not say which pattern was measured. Neumann does it the other way round on the U 87 Ai, where the same table gives 20/28/22 mV/Pa and three separate noise figures. A dual-diaphragm capsule really does change output level with pattern, so a single number cannot be right for all five.
checked 8/6/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~78% retained value).