Audio-Technica has launched the 50 Series of elite studio microphones with the AT5040 cardioid condenser microphone.

The hand-built studio vocal microphone AT5040 side-address condenser offers remarkably musical high-fidelity performance, with realism and depth, presence and purity of sound. 

Featuring a proprietary element design, the AT5040 employs four ultra-thin (2 micron) rectangular diaphragms that function together, providing combined surface area unachievable in a standard round diaphragm. Designed as a first-choice vocal microphone with smooth top end and controlled sibilance, the AT5040’s large-diaphragm characteristics and fast transient response also make it well suited for recording acoustic instruments.

The first of A-T’s design criteria for the AT5040 was purity of sound. To achieve this, A-T engineers developed a four-part rectangular element. Four well matched diaphragms function together (with outputs proprietarily summed) as a single high-performance element – effectively the largest element Audio-Technica has ever created.