Sennheisere 965
microphone
New retail price (MSRP)
$599
Used market: $465*
Specifications
1 of 9 values have a recorded source- Connectors
- XLR 3-Pin Male·
- Built-in converter
- no·
- Self-noise
- 21·
- Transducer
- Condenser True·
- Sensitivity
- -43.1✓
- Output impedance
- 50·
- Phantom power required
- yes·
- Connection
- XLR-Only·
- Indexable Locales
- ·
Expert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal profile
A handheld dual-diaphragm condenser for stage: switchable cardioid/supercardioid, a -10 dB pad, and 142 dB SPL before the pad. It is the loud-stage answer to a KMS 105, with more low-end weight and less top-end air.
Gain staging
-43.1 dBV/Pa with 21 dB(A) of self-noise is the trade this microphone makes: it is quiet on output and not especially quiet electrically, because it is built to be sung into at two centimetres, not to record a room.
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 in free field, no load (1kHz) 7.0 mV/Pa (2.3 mV/Pa with preattenuation)»
The e 965 has a mechanical pattern switch between cardioid and supercardioid, and the sheet gives one sensitivity and one noise figure of 21 dB(A) for both. It does name the pad state - 7.0 mV/Pa unattenuated, 2.3 mV/Pa with the -10 dB pre-attenuation - but never the pattern. Sennheiser's own e 914 sheet prints the identical 7.0 mV/Pa for a single fixed cardioid.
checked 8/6/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~78% retained value).