Category: Tech Topic

Apps Tech Tip #600: The Electrical Experimenter – January 1917

During the Centennial of Shure Incorporated, Tech Tips are planned that document lesser-known aspects of our history. In this issue, we learn about reading material of the young S.N. Shure. In January 1917, Sidney Natkin Shure was fourteen years old. He and younger brother Samuel Joseph were obsessed with all things radio. They subscribed to a monthly magazine entitled The Electrical Experimenter and are pictured below with a pal, reading the January 1917 issue. S.J. Shure, S.N. Shure, unidentified friend, Chicago 1917 On… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #599: Spinal Tap – Smell The Windscreen

EVANSTON, IL, December 6, 2000 – Shure Incorporated, the leading manufacturer of microphones and audio electronics, today announced that the company will celebrate its 75th anniversary in Anaheim at the 2001 National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show with an exclusive performance by legendary Shure endorsers Spinal Tap.  As Tap’s first show of 2001, the performance is open to all NAMM convention attendees on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets will be issued on the day of show only, Friday, January… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #205: The Misuse and Abuse of the Lavalier Microphone

Chest-worn lapel and lavalier microphones date back to the 1930s. The Shure 1936 catalog features the Model 73A crystal lapel mic: Highly efficient and faithful in voice reproduction due to the new Shure diaphragm design and improved mechanical system. Model 73A in 1936 catalog In the 1950s, as television production techniques developed, omnidirectional moving coil microphones suspended by a cloth cord and hung around the presenter’s neck became feasible due to smaller, stronger magnets. “The Today Show” on NBC was an… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #598: Is the SM5 Superman? Or merely Clark Kent?

During the Centennial of Shure Incorporated, Tech Tips are planned that document lesser-known aspects of our history. In this issue, readers will learn about the SM5 boom microphone and its relationship to the SM57. SM5 magazine ad, 1965 The SM5 boom microphone debuted in 1964. Its User Guide claimed: The SM5 has been painstakingly developed to uniquely satisfy the existing requirements for boom operation, and to provide a new degree of reproduction quality and flexibility of application in television and… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #597: The Advent Of The Condenser Recording Microphone

During the Centennial of Shure Incorporated, Tech Tips are planned that document lesser-known aspects of our history. In this issue, readers will learn about the earliest days of electrical recording and the role of the condenser microphone. The migration from acoustic recording studios to electrical recording studios began in 1925. Responding to the growing number of electrical studios, Shure Brothers Company marketed its first condenser microphone for recording, the Model 44, in 1932. Here is our January 1932 ad in Projection… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #596: The Shure Radio Company in 1927

During the Centennial of Shure Incorporated, Tech Tips are planned that document lesser-known aspects of our history. In this issue, readers will see how the Shure Radio Company marketed its offerings in 1927. The Shure Radio Company opened on April 25, 1925, with S.N. Shure as president and sole employee. This nascent business sold wholesale to radio retailers, a model copied from the N. Shure Company – the household goods catalog house founded in 1888 by Nathan Shure, paternal uncle… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #595: A Short History of the V15 Phonograph Cartridge Series

During the Centennial of Shure Incorporated, Tech Tips are planned that document lesser-known aspects of our history. In this issue, readers will learn about 40 years of V15 innovations. Critics and end users alike considered our V15 series as the finest moving magnet cartridges ever manufactured. Announced in 1964, the V15 series was our premier cartridge line. Timeline of the V15 series: V15 1964-1966                                   V15 Type II 1966-1972                     V15 Type III 1972-1978   V15 Type IV 1978-1982                   V15 Type V 1982-1985                   … -more-

Apps Tech Tip #200: Home Recording in the 1940s

Neither the wire recorder nor the tape recorder was available to the public until the late 1940s. So how did a hobbyist save a favorite radio broadcast in the early 1940s? By cutting a record at home using a magnetic disc cutter head, mounted on a unique tone arm attached to a special turntable. Three 78 rpm discs cut on a home disc recorder These recordings were called “transcriptions.” Mr. Shure owned a disc transcription device, kept in his home,… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #594: Shure Was There As World War Two Concluded – 1945/1946

Eighty years ago, the demand for military mics and headphones waned as World War II neared a resolution. Mr. Shure issued a statement in the February 1945 Shure Shots newsletter, “Today, our so-called peace time, or commercial line, microphones are important in the war we are waging. Battleships, intercommunication systems on ships, hospital rehabilitation centers, U.S.O. camps, and training schools require Unidynes, Uniplexes, phonograph pickups, and other Shure products. While these needs do not call for as great a quantity… -more-

Apps Tech Tip #593: The First Shure Technical Bulletin – 1933

In the early 1930s, Shure Brothers Company was not known as a microphone manufacturer, or anything else for that matter. S.N. Shure set his sights on changing that perception. He created a tagline for his company – Microphone Headquarters. He hired our first chief engineer, Ralph Glover, a University of Cincinnati graduate. Glover wrote a series of Technical Bulletins to teach end users, dealers, and distributors about microphone science. Mr. Shure believed that an informed customer would be loyal to the… -more-