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Neumann Sm2 1950s - $2,100 (Mansfield)
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The Neumann SM2 is essentially a pair of KM56 capsules mounted next to each other. The upper capsule can be rotated over a range of 270 degrees. The PSU has a pair of 9-position rotary switches to select between omni, cardioid, figure eight, and all steps in between.
To use as an X-Y microphone, cardioid is selected for each capsule, and the recording ‘aperture’ is controlled by the angle between the upper and lower capsules against the main axis.
For M-S recording, the capsules are positioned with the pattern for the M-channel set to cardioid and on-axis, while the S-channel is set to figure eight and offset by 90 degrees. The cardioid mic thus picks up the complete sound event exactly like the principal mic for a monaural recording, and all directional information is picked up by the figure eight capsule. The two mic outputs are combined in a matrix to form the sum and difference signals, which become the left and right channels.