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Reviews For: Shure 737A Monoplex

Category: Microphones for ham radio

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Review Summary For : Shure 737A Monoplex
Reviews: 1MSRP: 39.00
Description:
High impedance crystal element microphone
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.shure.com/user-guides/us_pro_737a_ug.pdf
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0014
K5UJ Rating: 2015-06-05
Very good ham shack crystal mic Time Owned: more than 12 months.

Note that the retail price I gave was what jobbers were generally selling this microphone for around 1950. I'm a little surprised no one has yet put up a review of the Shure 737A Monoplex, sometimes nicknamed the "waffle mic" because of the grill pattern. This is a unidirectional high impedance crystal element mic offering a 15 dB reduction in pickup to the sides and back. Large diaphragm with great pickup, and fidelity to a load that is between 1 and 5 megohms. I have been using mine with a 6SC7 preamp and p.p. 6V6 speech amp to my 3-400 rig. The mic has a designed response curve that rises to 5 kc and then drops off, which is pretty close to ideal for typical radiotelephone operating. Shure manufactured this mic in the late 1940s. You can find display ads for it in Radio News; I am looking at one on p. 131 of the March 1948 issue. As is the case with the D104 crystal element there is plenty of output (-53 dB) to drive the grid of a mic preamp stage. Shure has a data sheet about this mic here: http://www.shure.com/user-guides/us_pro_737a_ug.pdf
If you see one for sale at a hamfest and it doesn't look too beat up, give it a try. It is a nice addition to any ham's D104 or other crystal element microphone collection.