The venerable Neumann U87 has been a classic studio microphone ever since it was first released in 1967. Our U87a was purchased new in the early 1990s and has served the studio well on countless recordings. Neumann’s predecessor to the U87 was the U67 which was essentially a vacuum tube version of the U87 with the same body style and although the capsules bear different model numbers, they are basically the same. The primary differences between the two mics are the combination of the EF86 tube amplifier and BV12 output transformer resulting in the U67 having a different and highly desirable sound. A good vintage U67 can sometimes fetch over $10,000.
Max Kirchner from ioudio in Austria has brilliantly rebuilt the U67 electronics from the original schematics down to the very last detail including a NOS EF86 tube and winding the unique transformers to the original specifications. The result? Our U87 can be transformed into a very legitimate U67 in 30 seconds and the original electronics can be swapped back in if the sound of a U87 is needed. The best of both of worlds. You can never have enough microphone choices in the studio and this gives us yet another sonic color to paint with.