KTM

Common name: Neumann KTM

Production Status: Discontinued / Vintage

The KTM is the first transistorized condenser microphone manufactured by Georg Neumann GmbH. It was introduced in 1965. The microphone preamplifier circuit was designed around the newly developed FET (field effect transistor) that provides the very high input impedance required for condenser capsule coupling. The microphone features the high quality KK 64 cardioid capsule developed for the KM 64 tube microphone. At the time a new low voltage microphone standard was implemented (DIN 45 595 today known as DIN IEC 268 15). The low consumption microphone was powered via a 12 V DC wire feed, usually known as A-B, T- powering or modulation lead powering. This doesn’t require separate wires from the audio output ones. This microphone was the first to appear in Neumann’s “fet 70” series. It had a short market life (1965-1966), because the microphone diameter was larger than the classic 21 mm size of all KM microphones from 1953 onward. The KTM is a transformer-less microphone. It was quickly replaced by the KM 74, that was electro-acoustically identical to the KTM but had the standard 21 mm barrel size, benefiting from an higher grade miniaturization design.