jan 1, 1964 - CMT 20 by Schoeps (First comercially avaible phantom-powered mic)

Description:

Phantom powering was first used (and still is used) in copper wire based landline telephone systems since the introduction of the rotary-dial telephone in 1919. One such application in the telephone system was to provide a DC signaling path around transformer connected amplifiers in analogue line transmission systems.

The first known commercially available phantom-powered microphone was the Schoeps model CMT 20, which came out in 1964, built to the specifications of French radio with 9–12 volt DC phantom power; the positive pole of this powering was grounded. Microphone preamplifiers of the Nagra IV-series tape recorders offered this type of powering as an option for many years and Schoeps continued to support "negative phantom" until the CMT series was discontinued in the mid-1970s, but it is obsolete now.

In 1966, Neumann GmbH presented a new type of transistorized microphone to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK. Norwegian Radio had requested phantom-powered operation. Since NRK already had 48-volt power available in their studios for their emergency lighting systems, this voltage was used for powering the new microphones (model KM 84), and is the origin of 48-volt phantom power. This arrangement was later standardized in DIN 45596.

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