most expensive mic in the world?

[jupiter8]

The most expensive mic i know that was somewhat serie produced was the Brauner VM1 KHE (Klaus Heine Edition). IIRC those went for like 10k $. He only made a hundred of those and they are out of production so you'll need to go second hand for those.A safe assumption is that they are even more expensive now 'cause they're so rare.

Then you have the oddballs like the NU47 but to date i think he has only made like 7 or so microphones. Bruce Swedien has one,Björk has one and believe it or not Jennifer Lopex has one as well. There are a couple more of them but not more than ten. I believe those are 10kish as well.If you can get one.

Then for the really odd stuff.The De Geer microphone. Those were 12k or so.A Swedish mic genius/weirdo called Didrik De Geer makes those. They are currently out of production as he has a new improved model coming out where he makes the diaphragm himself. Expect those to be even more expensive. And you can't just buy one.You need to pass mr De Geers inspection first to see of you're worthy to buy one. And of course you can't just use that one with any micpre.Prefereably you should buy his micpres as well which cost as much as the microphone itself.

If you go second hand the Neuman U47 isn't even the most expensive. The Neumann M50 is worth 20k+.
Funny story.I'm almost positive i was going to buy one of those 20 years back for a lot less but decided against it.
Read all about it here.
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much- ... story.html

[jupiter8]

Some of the old classics tend to fetch somewhat ridiculous prices, this U47 for example has a starting bid of $9999...
Doesn't beat that Brauner but then that one's a stereo mic.

thing is tho, thats only the STARTING bid

Thing is though noone might buy it. The diaphragm looks a bit fonky on that one.

[herodotus]

My research has so far yielded $19,999as the highest retail price for a new microphone.

But I am sure that the actual most expensive microphone is probably some pre-war model of an RCA ribbon mic, or perhaps a Neumann CMV 3.

Antique collectors, in addition to audio gear sluts, covet these, so I am sure that the prices can get quite ridiculous.