ShureKSM8 Dualdyne
microphone
New retail price (MSRP)
$439
Used market: $340*
Specifications
2 of 8 values have a recorded source- Connectors
- XLR 3-Pin Male·
- Built-in converter
- no·
- Transducer
- Dynamic Moving Coil·
- Sensitivity
- -51.5✓
- Output impedance
- 300·
- Phantom power required
- no·
- Connection
- XLR-Only·
- Indexable Locales
- ·
Expert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal profile
A cardioid dynamic with two diaphragms: the second, undriven one sits behind the first and changes how air moves through the rear ports, which is what flattens the proximity rise. The value is in the low end staying put as the singer moves, not in the level.
Gain staging
300 ohms of source impedance is double what most handhelds present, so a preamp input below about 1.5 kilohms costs audible top end here where it would not on an SM58. And the two Shure documents disagree on how loud it is: the guide's bracketed 1.85 mV is 3.2 dB below the -51.5 dBV printed beside it.
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.
«-51.5 dBV/Pa[1] (1.85 mV)»
1.85 mV/Pa is -54.7 dBV/Pa, not -51.5; -51.5 dBV/Pa is 2.66 mV/Pa. The gap is 3.2 dB. Shure's own product page for the KSM8 prints the arithmetically correct pair, '-51.50 dBV/Pa - 2.66 mV/Pa', in its machine-readable specification block - so the two Shure documents disagree, and the user guide is the one that does not add up.
checked 8/6/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~77% retained value).