Shure
Beta 181
Small-diaphragm condenser · Cardioid / Supercardioid / Omnidirectional / Figure-8 · 20–20,000 Hz
- The capsule unscrews: cardioid, supercardioid, omnidirectional and bidirectional heads all fit the same 145 g body.
- Side-address and barely thicker than a pencil, so it slides under a hi-hat or behind a guitar cab grille.
- Max SPL runs from 149 dB with the cardioid head to 154 dB with the omni — the figure here is the supercardioid's 152 dB.
Frequency response
No response curve yet.
MicSense only draws a curve traced from a graph the manufacturer actually publishes — it never estimates one from the microphone’s class. Shure publishes figures for the Beta 181 but no response graph, so the numbers are in the spec table below and the chart stays empty.
Polar pattern
Generated from the first-order directivity formula for cardioid / supercardioid / omnidirectional / figure-8. It illustrates the pattern type — it is not a measurement of this individual model.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Shure |
|---|---|
| Model | Beta 181 |
| Type | Small-diaphragm condenser |
| Form factor | Side-address |
| Polar pattern | Cardioid / Supercardioid / Omnidirectional / Figure-8 |
| Frequency range | 20–20,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | — |
| Max SPL | 152 dB SPL |
| Self-noise | 22.5 dB(A) |
| Impedance | 110 Ω (output) |
| Connector | XLR3M |
| Powering | phantom 11–52 V |
| Weight | 145 g |
| Price tier | Pro |
| Introduced | — |
Every figure above is from Shure’s own published datasheet for this model — see the datasheet. A dash means the manufacturer does not publish that figure; it does not mean zero.
What it gets used for
- Overhead
- Hi-hat
- Guitar cab
- Acoustic instrument
- Choir / ensemble
MicSense tags microphones by the job on a live stage, not by studio category — so you can filter for “kick in” or “monitor vocal” instead of working backwards from “large-diaphragm condenser”.
Compare it against the alternatives.
MicSense lets you put up to four microphones side by side — spec table, overlaid response curves and polar diagrams on one screen. Free with a free Squaresmile account.