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Definition of "k47":
K47 is the name of a condenser microphone capsule, created by Neumann around 1960, possibly as early as 1958, to replace the M7 (whose diaphragm was made of PVC plastic and subject to relatively rapid deterioration).
The K47 is a large-diaphragm capsule with a Mylar (polyester) diaphragm. The Mylar film is extremely thin, just 6 microns, and is coated with gold. An electrical lead is mounted to the center; this construction is termed “center-terminated.”
A single brass “backplate,” outside diameter 34mm, is fitted with two Mylar diaphragms, one on each side. The diaphragms are attached via a screwed-down tensioning ring. This is a contrast to the M7, whose diaphragms were glued to the backplate.
By combining the electrical signals produced by the two diaphragms, multiple pickup patterns can be produced.
The use of a single backplate presented tuning challenges. If the opposing diaphragms were not tensioned equally, the capsule’s figure-of-8 and omnidirectional patterns would have been adversely affected. Neumann’s next major capsule design, the K67, utilized a split backplate, allowing each capsule half to be tuned independently, then joined into matched pairs.
Historically, Neumann maintained multiple quality designations, indicating the relative parity of the front and back half of each capsule.
Martin Schneider, 2007
In earlier days we made a distinction, K49 was the best possibly matched capsules front/rear; K47 was the second best classification; and for the U47fet we needed only one side to be perfect, so that capsule was called K47fet.
Now, our tolerances in the production of this capsule are so small that we do not make this distinction anymore, and both K47 and K49 are now called K47/49, and are used for all U47, U48, M49, M249, M149Tube.
The K47 capsule, albeit with a plastic tensioning ring rather than the original brass, is still manufactured by Neumann (Sennheiser) today.
One of the ways a K47 can be visually distinguished is the pattern of holes in the backplate. The outer ring of holes forms a circle around the center pin, with each hole equidistant from the center. Contrast this with a K67, whose backplate holes form tangents to the circumference.
Klaus Heyne
K47/49 from early 1959 to 1963/4 used diaphragm rings made of brass. Then came fibreboard (medium to dark brown) then ivory colored plastic, then, through now, white plastic.
The K47/K49 capsule does not produce a pure Cardioid pickup pattern; it tends to become more directional at higher frequencies.
Martin Schneider
The standard K47/49, just like the M7 is an in-between capsule. Cardioid somewhere below 1kHz, super/hypercardioid the higher you go. That’s the way the capsule came out of the design process in 1935. And that’s why the manual for U47fet said ‘supercardioid’.
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large-diaphragm transformerless condenser mini-k side-address tube transformer-coupled ef814k ef814 multipattern tripolar custom-shop oxford gk49 t-fet gk47 hpf fet ami vf14er cardas single-backplate dual-voice dual-diaphragm vf14 m7 center-terminated k49 ecc81 platinum-diaphragm variable-tube-voltage pvc ac701 msc2 vd47 b7 6267 jensen surface-mount mogami ef14 bv8 uf14 dual-backplate 5840 ef732 pressure-gradient 6072 ck12 cek12
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large-diaphragm transformerless condenser mini-k side-address tube transformer-coupled ef814k ef814 multipattern tripolar custom-shop oxford gk49 t-fet gk47 hpf fet ami vf14er cardas single-backplate dual-voice dual-diaphragm vf14 m7 center-terminated k49 ecc81 platinum-diaphragm variable-tube-voltage pvc ac701 msc2 vd47 b7 6267 jensen surface-mount mogami ef14 bv8 uf14 dual-backplate 5840 ef732 pressure-gradient 6072 ck12 cek12
