Neumann M149, Tube Microphone@+With nine different directional characteristics, the M 149 Tube can be adapted to very different acoustic recording situations. Like its ancestors, it is particularly suitable for speech and song. This is not only due to its capsule, but also the particularly low replacement noise level of its modern circuit technology.@+@+The M 149 tube is discussed from the side. Its front side is marked by the company nameplate and the directivity switch. Below the capsule, a dome ensures dispersion of sound from the upper half-space, so there is no disturbing interference with the direct sound components. To protect against structure-borne sound, the capsule is elastically mounted. The capsule is surrounded by the large microphone basket of the old M 49, which is now acoustically more open and behaves sound-neutral.@+@+There are nine characteristics to choose from: Omnidirectional, wide cardioid, cardioid, hyper cardioid and figure eight, each with an intermediate position.@+@+Unlike other tube microphones, the M 149 Tube combines a specially selected tube (triode) with state-of-the-art circuitry. The aim of the development was to use the special transmission characteristics of a tube and to bring the hereby amplified capsule signal controlled, unadulterated and feedback-free to the microphone output. Therefore, the usual in tube microphones output transformer is not used. Instead, to drive the different output loads, a particularly suitable for audio signals integrated amplifier with very low distortion (THD