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Someone lent me a U89i, so I was wondering how does it differ from the U87? I don't own a U87, but I'll be having the U89i for a while. I tried to do a little search on my own, but haven't been able to find anything yet. apart from that it is a bit smaller than U87...

Juergen

Comments

anonymous Thu, 08/23/2001 - 00:22

If you want to read numbers,charts and look at graphs, visit the Neumann website at http://WWW.Neumann.com

I have both the U87 and the U89. They really don't sound much alike. The U87 as you know, is a studio workhorse which will usually sound good to excellent on nearly anything. The U89 is uh, less "colorful"--some would say colorless (or worse). Sometimes it's the right mic for some vocalists but I usually use something else. It does make a great room mic though--very natural sounding. I often put it in figure 8 for that application. I bought mine about 15 years ago for really cheap (from Klaus Heyne no less!). Although it's somewhat useful, I wouldn't consider it for a main mic.

Bob

dbock Thu, 08/23/2001 - 08:25

These mics ar similar in that they both have trapezoidal headgrilles and output transformers.
The 89 uses a 3/4" capsule (like the tlm170 & 193) whereas the 87 uses a real 1" capsule. I've got a visual image of the sound of the U89: a layer of thick, clear film between you and the sound source.
The 89 is a more technically "perfect" capsule, but somehow also less usefull for music recording. Go figure.

anonymous Mon, 08/27/2001 - 18:30

Originally posted by David Bock:
I've got a visual image of the sound of the U89: a layer of thick, clear film between you and the sound source.
The 89 is a more technically "perfect" capsule, but somehow also less usefull for music recording. Go figure.

Yeah, I have noticed the layer of thick, clear film. I had never used one before, so after using it for the first time, I thought "where's the Neumann sound gone?" I think for the first session I was trying to convince myself that it was there, á la 87, but that somehow the singer must have had a kind of voice where I just wasn't noticing it as much...

...after recording a few people more I have lost some of the excitement of owning a Neumann, well, borrowing it for an indefinite amount of time.

I've found it sounds ok on acoustic guitar, which I was happy about. I think I am still grateful, though, considering that at this point I don't have a whole lot of mics.

Thanks for y'all's help!

Juergen

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