U47? 
by Tom Guignette from Lagrange Oh, January 2004

An affordable tube microphone based on the legendary U47. The mic uses the same dual-membrane K 47 capsule as the classic U 47 fet and U 47 microphones. Its transformerless tube electronics, are much like those found in the current M 149 tube microphone. The M 147 offers a fixed supercardioid pickup pattern, with no pad or low-cut switches on the mic body or power supply. The microphone offers a high SPL figure of 130 dB, making a pad almost unnecessary. These switches would have been nice, but invariably would have raised the cost of the mic. Self-noise is low at 12 dBA, making the M 147 one on par with the U87. I first tried the M147 on vocals. I noticed a understated top end and thick low-mid response. The M 147 doesn’t produce a airy type vocal without a dash of high end shelving, it had more of a vintage sound. Next was an acoustic guitar (Taylor 714ce). I positioned the mic 2 ft back pointing were the neck meets the body. I was fairly happy with the results i got. It was warm and full but not the pop acoustic sound i was looking for, a tad bit to muddy for my taste. A km-184 served this purpose better. Next was an electric guitar.... I set the mic about 15 inches back from a Marshall cab aimed at the center of the cone. This time the warm midrange was an asset to what i was looking for. It made my Shure 57 sound thin and buzzy in comparison. It sounded great on clean guitars as well. For jazz guitar it`s probably one of the best mics you could get, accept for maybe a Coles or Royer ribbon mic. The M 147 compares nicely to the other Neumann microphones. Up against the TLM 103, the M 147 was thicker, warmer and darker sounding with a touch more character. A nice mic to round out your cabinet, but a U47 it isn`t.

Click here to Read the inSync Review for the M 147

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