Philips 9549, English version

This Vintage Friday I want to tell you about the Philips 9549. It was produced in the 1940s and 1950s. A special character of this microphone was that it could function in all kinds of climate extremes, which was not self-evident at the time. The 9549 was therefore used from the humid and warm tropics to areas where temperatures often remained well below 0 degrees Celsius.

The 9549 is a dynamic microphone with an omnidirectional polar pattern. The frequency spectrum is, by current standards, somewhat limited with a range of 70Hz to 10kHz. The pricepoint of 125 guilders made this microphone not a cheap purchase at the time.

In my collection there are two copies that differ from each other. They both have the 4-pin connector that allowed you to match different impedances.

A odd detail is that this microphone was also released under the name 6010, the only difference I know of is the on/off switch on the front of the 6010, which the 9549 does not have. If anyone knows any more differences, I would like to know.

Users included the blues singer Big Bill Broonzy and the Dutch Jazz diva Pia Beck. Another notable user is Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

It is certainly striking how many of these microphones were used in the former Eastern Bloc and other communist country’s such as Cuba.

At the time, Philips was a very renowned supplier of high-end pro audio and, in addition to microphones, also built the mixing consoles for the Polygram studios, among others. Polygram was the record label that was also owned by Philips. The well-known Austrian pro audio brand AKG was also largely owned by Philips. Nowadays that’s beyond imagination, as Philips only makes consumer electronics and medical equipment.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.

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See you the next Vintage Friday!