ShureSM48
microphone
New retail price (MSRP)
$59
Used market: $45*
Specifications
5 of 8 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal profile
The SM58's cheaper cousin from the same SM line: cardioid dynamic, brightened mid-range, bass roll-off to tame proximity effect. Same job, one cartridge grade down.
Gain staging
-57.5 dBV/Pa is 3 dB quieter than an SM58 and 1.5 dB quieter than an SM57 - far enough that a hungry budget interface will be near the top of its gain range on a quiet talker. Note the two impedance figures: Shure rates it EIA 150 ohms but states 270 ohms actual, and the 270 is the number your preamp sees.
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: -57.5 dBV/Pa [1] (1.3 mV)»
The SM48 user guide gives -57.5 dBV/Pa; the machine-readable specification block on Shure's own product page (www.shure.com/en-GB/products/microphones/sm48) gives -57.00 dBV/Pa for the same microphone, alongside the same 1.30 mV/Pa. 1.3 mV/Pa is -57.7 dBV/Pa, so the guide's pair agrees with itself to 0.2 dB and the product page's does not. We store the guide's -57.5.
checked 8/5/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~76% retained value).