The U87 is probably the best-known and most widely used Neumann studio microphone.
It is equipped with a large double diaphragm capsule with the directional characteristics omnidirectional, cardioid and figure-of-eight, which are selected via a switch on the capsule head. A switch on the back causes a 10 dB pre-attenuation. This allows the microphone to transmit sound pressure levels up to 127 dB without distortion. Furthermore, the frequency response in the low pitch ranges can be lowered, in order, for example, to compensate for the proximity effect.