Please "identify" this Neumann mic.

S

steppingstone

New member
Hi, I'm trying to find out about the "value" of this Neumann TLM 170. A friend of mine owned it- but has passed away. The "Neumann" emblem is purple. It also say's: "p24/p48" on it. Most of the 170's I find online have a red emblem. Is this a low,mid, or high end Neuman? Yes, it might be on E-Bay soon.neumann2.jpgneumann3.jpgneumann1.jpg

Any help is much appreciated!
 
steppingstone said:
Hi, I'm trying to find out about the "value" of this Neumann TLM 170. A friend of mine owned it- but has passed away. The "Neumann" emblem is purple. It also say's: "p24/p48" on it. Most of the 170's I find online have a red emblem. Is this a low,mid, or high end Neuman? Yes, it might be on E-Bay soon.View attachment 69713View attachment 69714View attachment 69712

Any help is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

There is something very wrong about this mic.

It's a Neumann TLM 170R, but all TLM (transformerless) mics have a red badge.

The purple badge indicates a transformer.

I would go to the Neumann PinBoard and ask the question there.

You will also find a "Manufacturing Date Enquiries" link on the left, which may help.

But something is very odd about this mic. and you really need to ask Neumann - Neumann's Martin Schneider is regularly on the PinBoard, so you should get a quick answer from the horse's mouth.

John
 
Steenamaroo said:
Most TLM 170s had red badges. Purple badge means it's older AFAIK.
Click to expand...

No it doesn't - As far as I know the TLM 170 never had a purple badge and the newer TLM 170R (which this one is according to the pattern switch) always had a red badge.

SO something is very funny here.

Unless Neumann ran out of red badges at one time ant made a small batch with purple ones to avoid delaying the batch ???
 
John Willett said:
No it doesn't - As far as I know the TLM 170 never had a purple badge and the newer TLM 170R (which this one is according to the pattern switch) always had a red badge.

SO something is very funny here.

Unless Neumann ran out of red badges at one time ant made a small batch with purple ones to avoid delaying the batch ???
Click to expand...

Wow- very interesting!! Thanks for the help/info- all of you!
 
See this:

"When Neumann introduced the TLM 170 R in 1983 (!) it was still marketed as part of the 'fet80' family (purple badge) albeit being the first (and last) model in that line up that was transformerless.

Only later would the TLM170 be elevated into the 'fet100' class, when it received a red badge, like subsequently all other transformerless mics.

With other words: the purple-badge TLM 170 in the auction indicates that it is an early one.
Klaus Heyne
German Masterworks
www.GermanMasterworks.com"

From here:
PSW Recording Forums: Klaus Heyne's Mic Lab => Neumann badge color
 
Yehp. It was the odd one out so purple tlm170 just means it's an early one, apparently.

Nothing to say it couldn't be a replacement badge too though. I had to replace one on a tlm193. Bought the right colour though. :P
 
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gecko zzed said:
See this:

"When Neumann introduced the TLM 170 R in 1983 (!) it was still marketed as part of the 'fet80' family (purple badge) albeit being the first (and last) model in that line up that was transformerless.

Only later would the TLM170 be elevated into the 'fet100' class, when it received a red badge, like subsequently all other transformerless mics.

With other words: the purple-badge TLM 170 in the auction indicates that it is an early one.
Klaus Heyne
German Masterworks
www.GermanMasterworks.com"

From here:
PSW Recording Forums: Klaus Heyne's Mic Lab => Neumann badge color
Click to expand...

The trouble is that it is NOT an early one.

It's a TLM 170R, which was a later upgrade.

The original TLM 170 had the patterns switchable on the mic.. The "R" version came later and if switched to "R" enabled remote switching of the polar-patterns.

Unless it had a shell swap with an early mic. due to damage.

Anyway - it should have a serial number and all the OP has to do is to follow the link I gave above and Neumann will be able to tell the manufacturing date and who it originally went to (IE: country, not first user).
 
Heyne says, in his first sentence, that it is a TLM170R, but purple badged because of being in the FET80 family, rather than the later FET100 family (which was red-badged).
 
John Willett said:
The trouble is that it is NOT an early one.

It's a TLM 170R, which was a later upgrade.

The original TLM 170 had the patterns switchable on the mic.. The "R" version came later and if switched to "R" enabled remote switching of the polar-patterns.

Unless it had a shell swap with an early mic. due to damage.

Anyway - it should have a serial number and all the OP has to do is to follow the link I gave above and Neumann will be able to tell the manufacturing date and who it originally went to (IE: country, not first user).
Click to expand...

As I said, ask Neumann.

I was around when the 170R first came out and I don't remember a purple badged "R" version.

The first TLM 170s were not remote-switchable and I can certainly believe they had a purple badge - it's the "R" version that is causing me to question.

So - as I said - get on to Neumann with the serial number and they will be able to confirm if it's an original or a badge-swap.
 
gecko zzed said:
Heyne says, in his first sentence, that it is a TLM170R, but purple badged because of being in the FET80 family, rather than the later FET100 family (which was red-badged).
Click to expand...

Heyne is right, and if it has an R on the pattern switch it can be remotely controlled. Also there were a few with the k67 type capsule whereas the usual was the smaller k89 type capsule which coincidentally is used in the TLM103.
 
AudioHipster has a Purple Logo one to be on eBay soon maybe... from the Neumann web page forum:
"The very early TLM 170 indeed sported the purple logo of the fet80 solid state microphones. Shortly thereafter the red badge was introduced to differentiate the transformer-less output design. The color of the badge is used to classify the particular specimen into specific groups as follows:
Black - tube microphone,
purple - solid state (FET) microphone,
Red - microphone with transformerless output (TLM),
Blue - digital (AES42) microphone,
Green - dynamic (broadcast) microphone"

Cheers Doyen
 
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