Rating: 9.8/10 | Street Price: $3,299 | Neumann | Studio Microphones

There are microphones that are adequate. There are microphones that are good. And then there is the Neumann U87 Ai, which has been the first call for recording engineers around the world for over 50 years.

Listen to virtually any major R&B or soul vocal recording from the past five decades and the odds are better than even that it was tracked through a U87. Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, SZA — the list of artists who have recorded landmark vocals through this microphone would fill a music encyclopedia.

What Makes It Special

The U87 is a large-diaphragm condenser microphone with three polar patterns (cardioid, figure-8, and omnidirectional). What is unusual is the combination of capsule design, internal electronics, and 50 years of refinement that produces a sound simultaneously detailed and musical.

The key word is musical. Many high-end microphones are accurate. The U87 is accurate and warm, detailed and forgiving. It makes voices sound like themselves, but the best version of themselves.

Verdict

If you can afford only one serious studio microphone for the rest of your career, this is it. Requires 48V phantom power and a quiet recording environment.