Neumann Microphones of the early 1960s

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• Gotham Audio was owned by a man named Stephen Temmer. He was really a rotten guy, as anyone who dealt with him will attest, and no one shed many tears when he died of a most unpleasant disease in 1992.

  Ethan Winer offers but a small portion of why he was not a much well liked fellow in this excellent article:

  http://www.ethanwiner.com/U47-FET.html

• So, Ethan wiener thought the guy was an asshole because he claimed the Mylar capsule were the same on 47 fets? And that he replaced the re Erin en badge with a sticker? Yeah, Jesus what a prick!

  Oh yeah, he also imported all the Neumann mics, what a dick..

  I dunno. Seems unnecessary to slander a dead guy..

• Herr Temmer was an interesting piece of work. He was a tonnemeister by trade, and he get the credit for finding and setting into place the importation and sales of Neumann microphones and other products from Germany. To this day, I'm not sure I understand how he locked up the trademark in the USA, such that any product bearing that badge and not imported by him was subject to either an import duty, or having its badge removed. Further, if you did manage to bring a Neumann microphone into the USA without paying him the customary tithe, if you ever had trouble with the microphone and had the temerity to send it to him for repair, his company would repair it, but the Neumann badge would be removed and your microphone would be returned to you (with a not insignificant bill). Parts support during his regime was difficult at best, and they were known for not even selling screws as spares.

  Herr Temmer did bring many legendary products into this country, and he was a technically capable salesman, something often missing today. He protected his brand like a mamma bear protects her cubs. His business practices made him many enemies, and like someone else posted, there were few tears shed at his demise. He's the reason that his company's name was colloquially known as "Gotcha! Audio." What would he say about Chinese clone U47 or U87 microphones?

• So, Ethan wiener thought the guy was an asshole because he claimed the Mylar capsule were the same on 47 fets? And that he replaced the re Erin en badge with a sticker? Yeah, Jesus what a prick!

  Oh yeah, he also imported all the Neumann mics, what a dick..

  No, he was an asshole because he stole the Telefunken logos off people's mics and other equipment without permission, because he made it impossible to get Neumann parts without going to Europe or having a sancho over there, and because of his generally arrogant and abusive manner. I had a couple of phone conversations with him a few years before his demise because I had one of the legendary Rein Narma designed 811 cutterhead amps (with a toroidal GR output transformer wound on a Variac core) which he sold in the late 50s or early 60s. He was a complete peckerhead and, not to mince words, I was happy to read his obit.

  Most of the vast world of German pro audio never came here as much because of him as any other reason (the prices didn't help).

• I have it in my Studio A...here in Caracas Venezuela, southAmerica...Stunning mic...¡¡¡

• I worked in his NY office of Gotham Audio for several years. He was nice but could be abrasive at times. Anyway, working there helped to support me through college so I am forever grateful. Also, he took the staff out to shows and dinner at Christmas time.

  I am sorry to learn of his death.