Beta 56A
microphone
$189
Used market: $145*
Specifications
3 of 8 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal Profile
A supercardioid moving-coil built around the same cartridge family as the Beta 57A, wrapped in a short body with a locking swivel so it can be dropped between rack toms without a stand. Shure prints -51 dBV/Pa (2.8 mV), which makes it 5 dB louder than an SM57 for the same pressure - a real difference when a cheap preamp is already at three o'clock on a quiet floor tom.
Gain Staging Advice
The output impedance is the thing to check, not the level. The user guide says 290 ohms; Shure's own product page says 150. Load either of them with a preamp input below about 1.5 kilohms and the top end goes soft. Take the higher figure when you plan the input - it is the one that describes what the coil actually presents.
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.
«Output Impedance 290 Ω»
Shure's user guide for the Beta 56A prints 290 ohms as the output impedance, while the product page for the same microphone carries the field 'Impedance (Ω)' with the value 150. Neither document says the two numbers are different quantities. The guides for two older Shure models make the same gap explicit - the 55SH Series II says 'EIA rated at 150 Ω (270 Ω actual)' and the 565SD says 'EIA rated at 150 Ω (250 Ω actual)' - so 150 is most likely the EIA rating and 290 the measured source impedance. For the Beta 56A that sentence is never printed.
checked 8/6/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~77% retained value). · checked on 8/6/2026