Prism Sound Orpheus - Audio Media

microphones 2008h Gefell+ + + + Microtech Gefell+ + + + Microtech Gefell+ +the second Neumann company – GeorgNeumann GmbH – later to be taken overby Sennheiser. During 1945 to 1946, afterthe surrender, Germany was divided intofour sectors. Thuringia, initially occupiedby the Americans was exchanged for a partof Berlin and handed over to the SovietUnion – an event that changed the situationin Gefell completely. Together with therest of the staff, Erich Kuehnast remainedin Gefell. Georg Neumann assigned themanagement of the Georg Neumann & Co.limited partnership in Gefell to him.A Country Was Divided – A Company TooBy 1957, Microtech Gefell had producedtheir first three-pattern switchable tubemicrophone and introduced two morecapsule designs, but when the BerlinWall went up in 1961 all communicationsbetween East and West stopped. Because ofGefell’s proximity to the East/West border,customers were not permitted to visit thecompany, and even the road maps of thearea were redrawn inaccurately to confusethe visitors.Until 1972 the company had beencalled Georg Neumann & Co/Gefell,but with socialism surging, the namesof the former owner were deleted, thecompany nationalised, and renamed asVEB Mikrofontechnik Gefell – a people’sUm 930Condenser microphone withswitchable characteristicsKem 970 cardioid planemicrophoneThe first and uniquemicrophone with non-rotationalsymmetricaldirectivityM 930 cardioidM 940 hypercardioidM 950 wide cardioidStudio condenser microphoneM 990Tube condenser microphonewith cardioid polar patternenterprise. Through the ‘70s and ‘80s thecompany continued to develop variousadvanced technologies, including solidstatemicrophone amplifiers, and alsoundertook government-funded developmentof industrial lasers for engraving.Breaking Down the Wall –Breaking New GroundIn 1989 the East German government finallycollapsed; the Berlin Wall came down; andthe Berlin Neumann Company offered toco-operate with Microtech Gefell. EventuallyGeorg Neumann’s heirs were able, asformer owners, to reclaim a share of thecompany and, as part of the cooperation,the Neumann factory in Berlin examinedthe various Gefell microphones. Apparently,and much to their surprise, they foundmicrophone technology more advanced thansome of that available in the West!Before the reunification of Germany,most Eastern Bloc broadcasters wereusing Microtech Gefell microphones, andapparently the PM860 can be found invirtually every town hall and auditorium inthe former Soviet Union. Currently underthe technical supervision of Kuehnast’sson, Microtech Gefell still produces the M7capsule in exactly the same way Neumanntaught the elder Kuehnast in the 1940s –hand-drilling each hole in the back plate,making the PVC membrane, and gluingit together by hand, just as Neumannspecified. The M7 is currently used in theUM 92.1 S, the UMT 70 S, MT 71 S and UM900 microphones.Some of the production equipmentthat Microtech Gefell GmbH uses forcapsule production employs technologydeveloped in cooperation with the Sovietsbefore Perestroika. Some quite recentlydeveloped microphones, the M 900 andM 910, have capsules that make use ofa ceramic material moulded under highpressure and plated with chromium –technology developed in Moscow, perfectedby Microtech and unlike anything currentlyfound in Western microphone designs.The SMS 70 series of microphonesdesigned in the early 1970s used a hybridamplifier with an FET stage – a technologynot adopted in the West until the late 1980s.Microtech’s latest amplifier designs usesurface-mount device (SMD) technology,and the company also manufacturesa complete line of measurementStarting Anew Without Breaking WithThe PastWith great attention to detail, and with greatwealth of experience, Microtech Gefell giveseach microphone a certain singularity – eventhough it mayFinely Craftedbe a standardmanufacturedproduct. In same themanner as GeorgNeumann himself,each microphone iscrafted by hand – ifit is the housing, amounting or even a single screw…microphones conforming to the DINand IEC standards. The majority of themeasurement products are approvedand certified by Physikalisch-TechnischeBundesanstalt Braunschweig PTB.They can be audited to comply withnational and international standards andcan therefore be used for legally bindingmeasurements. All measurementmicrophones meet the class 1 standardas specified in DIN EN 60651 and DIN IEC61672 respectively. Microtech Gefell isone of the world’s leading manufacturersof test and instrumentation microphonesand products are supplied to renownedcompanies in the automotive, aerospaceand environmental business, and to manyother industries.Contact DetailsGermany/US/CanadaMicrotech Gefell GmbHGeorg-neumann-platz d-07926 gefellt ++49 36649 882-0t ++49 36649 882 11t info@microtechgefell.dew www.microtechgefell.dew www.microtechgefell.comAny other European and global distributorsare listed on our homepage:www.microtechgefell.demade in Germanythe international microphone buyer’s guide 21