Nog even wat info over de Mic:
For half a century now, this microphone has been a faithful companion for artists and journalists, and played a vital role in the early years of TV and radio history: the MD 21, without doubt one of the world’s longest serving microphones and still much sought after in the product range of audio specialist Sennheiser.
Company founder Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser had a clear concept of what he wanted the MD 21 to be: “A dynamic microphone that has an omnidirectional pick-up pattern and a balanced frequency response combined with absolute toughness, setting it apart from all previous microphones.” Based on these specifications, Sennheiser’s development engineers got to work and created a microphone with excellent acoustic properties that made it ideally suited for both music and voice recording. Its unusual cross-section was a departure from the standard round design, while its die cast housing and hammer tone finish made it absolutely tough. Indeed, the aim was to achieve sturdy quality because, as Fritz Sennheiser remembers, “at that time, plastic microphones were considered to be second-rate microphones.”
The indestructible design of the new microphone was impressively demonstrated at the Industrial Fair in Hanover in 1954. “We set up a round wooden board, about 5 feet in diameter, on which we had fitted ramps at regular intervals. An MD 21 suspended on a short cable was placed on the board, which was then rotated quite fast. The microphone was dragged up each ramp and could be seen crashing down onto the board again and again,” said Fritz Sennheiser describing the unusual demonstration. “It was sensational - at that time, microphones were delicate objects and had to be handled carefully.” And even today, the extremely low percentage of repairs for the MD 21 - 0.4% - speaks for itself.
But even Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser never expected the MD 21 to be such a bestseller for so long. “We started with a completely normal “edition”, with production at that time in batches of 500.” In the course of its long life, the microphone has undergone only minor modifications, including a change from the gray hammer tone to a black finish. “We also improved the transducer system in accordance with the state of the art, basically involving improvements to the diaphragm. The main issue was - and still is - eliminating partial oscillation in the diaphragm.”