Shure565SD
microphone
New retail price (MSRP)
$149
Used market: $115*
Specifications
3 of 8 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal profile
The Unisphere I: the microphone the SM58 grew out of, still built, still shipped wired for low impedance. Cardioid moving coil, lockable on/off switch, -56 dBV/Pa in the configuration it arrives in - a decibel and a half below an SM58.
Gain staging
There is a jumper inside. Rewired for high impedance the same microphone produces -34 dBV/Pa - 22 dB more output - because the transformer is being used as a step-up into a high-impedance input. That mode only works into an unbalanced high-impedance amplifier input over a short cable; put the high-impedance output into a normal 1.5 kilohm mic preamp and the top end collapses.
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, open circuit voltage) L: -56.0 dBV/Pa (1.6 mV) H: -34.0 dBV/Pa (20 mV)»
One microphone, two published sensitivities 22 dB apart, selected by an internal jumper the buyer may never touch. The sheet does not say which setting the microphone ships in - that sentence appears earlier, in the impedance-selection instructions ('shipped connected for low impedance operation'). A number quoted for this model without stating L or H is meaningless, and the H figure only applies into a high-impedance unbalanced input, not into a normal microphone preamp.
checked 8/6/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~77% retained value).