From the glory age of cursive writing – a beautifully preserved Sennheiser MD 403.

The MD 403 is one of the most elegant and musically interesting microphones ever made by Sennheiser.
Often mentioned alongside the MD 409, it is in fact its complete opposite in musical character.

While the 409 is known for its dense, mid-forward sound, the MD 403 is built around a thinner diaphragm, a different housing and a unique three-point capsule suspension with a metallic shield instead of foam filtering.

This results in a much brighter, more open sound with a natural high-frequency shelf that extends cleanly to around 12 kHz.

Sennheiser was proud of this design, promoting the MD 403 as a microphone with special abilities for headroom, reverberation and detailed overtones – and they were right.

CONDITION

Good used vintage condition.
cable and housing show small signs of age and use.

BUILD & DESIGN

Type: Dynamic (moving-coil)
Front-address design
Flat metal housing
Three-point suspended capsule system
Made in Germany (Sennheiser)

ESTIMATED FREQUENCY RESPONSE

~60 Hz – 12,000 Hz

Flat low and mid range
Natural upward high-frequency shelf
Excellent detail and room capture
(Estimated from practical testing; not factory specification.)

SOUND CHARACTERISTICS

Bright, open and extremely musical.

The MD 403 excels where space, detail and realism matter:

• Acoustic guitar
• Drum overhead
• Room microphone
• Piano
• Strings
• Detailed vocals

It cannot compete with modern microphones on paper specifications, but it beats many of them on what matters most: sound, build quality and musicality.

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