ShureKSM44A
microphone
New retail price (MSRP)
$1,099
Used market: $855*
Specifications
5 of 8 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal profile
Dual-diaphragm 1 inch externally biased condenser with three patterns, a 15 dB pad and two high-pass slopes; Class A transformerless output.
Gain staging
-30.5 dBV/Pa in cardioid makes this the loudest source in the batch, 28.5 dB above an SM7B. The pattern switch moves it: omnidirectional is about 6 dB quieter, bidirectional about 5 dB quieter. Switching pattern mid-session and leaving the preamp alone costs real level. Shure does publish all three values separately, which is more than most multipattern datasheets manage - see the note below on how they were converted.
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 (mV/Pa) - Cardioid: 29.80, Omnidirectional: 14.80, Bidirectional: 16.80. Sensitivity (dBV/Pa) - Cardioid: -31.00, Omnidirectional: -37.00, Bidirectional: -36.00»
One specification states the same quantity twice, and the two halves do not agree. 29.80 mV/Pa converts to -30.52 dBV/Pa, not -31.00; 14.80 mV/Pa is -36.59, not -37.00; 16.80 mV/Pa is -35.49, not -36.00. The gap is about half a decibel in every pattern and always in the same direction: the dBV column is quieter than the manufacturer's own millivolts. Two decimal places are printed, so this cannot be rounding. On other Shure microphones the same two columns agree exactly - SM86 gives 3.15 mV/Pa and -50.00, Beta 52A gives 0.63 mV/Pa and -64.00 - which is what makes the KSM44A row stand out. We store the conversion of the millivolt figure, -30.5 dBV/Pa, because millivolts per pascal is the quantity that gets measured and the decibel figure is derived from it.
checked 8/5/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~78% retained value).