TLM 103 Anniversary Edition

The famous U87 microphone is an industry standard for voice work. It has switchable pickup patterns because it has two capsules, and costs an arm and a leg. Neumann took one capsule (meaning it's now cardiod-only) and packaged it in this transformerless design, and it costs almost four times less. Not only does it have that gorgeous Neumann sound, and the look and feel of a serious studio mic, but the carry case is beautiful and rugged. Why get the anniversary edition? It's effectively about $50 off of the shock mount, and those puppies are more expensive than you'd think. If you're getting a mic like this you need a good mount anyway, or every tiny thump in the floor is going to be picked up.

So, I'm a voice over actor. I produce voice overs for clients all over the world, not just the USA. I've been working with AKG brand mics for the last 10 years. I have landed plenty of jobs with those mics, however, THIS, right here, is a HUGE game changer. I didn't know I was lacking LOTS of midrange with my AKG vs this Neumann TLM 103. I am extremely excited to rock this mic for the next 10, 12 years.

I love this Mic for recording rap and pop vocals, but be extremely careful on how your using it with your home studio setup. Its almost to sensitive. You can literally hear birds chirping outside and the sound of the air circulating in the room. Can be a good thing or a bad thing, as long as you make sure you plan ahead and make the correct setting adjustments and use a high pass filter. Some great plug ins that can help with that as well. Also, make sure this is the right mic for you in terms of the type of vocals you plan on recording. I use it for pop and rap vocals, which to me sound great, but others have advised against.

Sweet delicious chocolatey buttery wonderment. I've been doing VO and narration full time for about 5 years and I've had this mic for one day and now all I'm doing is regretting the last 5 years of mediocre crap I turned out when I could have just purchased this years ago and been churning out top level audio from day 1. Seriously. This is like driving around in a brand new luxury car after rolling around in a mid-nineties civic for the last 5 years. If you are professional and have the money to invest in your studio but are on the fence, this is a fantastic piece of equipment.

This is an amazing microphone. I do voice-over work for a living, so it is very important that I have the highest quality voice. There is a huge difference between this microphone and my two other ~$200+ microphones I've used in the past. It really picks up every part of my voice perfectly. I would highly recommend this microphone to anyone who is simply looking for the highest quality gear.

Neumann is a kind of mic that always is a grantee. This diaphragm is one of the best and quality/price is good, specially for not big studios.

AMAZING mic!!! I'm a full-time voice over artist and was agonizing over this or the 102, but I'm so glad I chose this one. Great, full sound that makes my voice more dynamic than any other mic I've used. Love it

Great mike until it ceased working after only 7 months of light in-studio use. In response to my request to Amazon to provide me with manufacturer warranty information, Amazon's emailed reply was as follows: "We looked into your recent request for a copy of the manufacturer's warranty for Neumann TLM103 SET TLM 103 SET w/ EA1 Shockmount and Aluminum Case, but we weren;t able to locate the manufacturer's warranty information for this product. This may mean this item doesn't come with a manufacturer's warranty. Please contact the manufacturer for more information." Thanks a lot for nothing!

This is my best microphone so far. So far, I've used 3 different microphones from Sennheiser including e935 and e965. Neumann is a level up in terms of voice quality, and sensitivity.

Best best best! Go for it if you have the money.