Shure
Beta 87A
Handheld condenser · Supercardioid · 50–20,000 Hz · a rider regular
- A handheld condenser that reaches 20 kHz, at 207 g — the lightest full-size vocal mic in this library.
- Supercardioid, so the null sits at about 126°: point the back at a wedge and you are aiming the rear lobe into it.
- The Beta 87C is the same microphone with a cardioid capsule, for singers who wander off axis.
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 87A 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 supercardioid. It illustrates the pattern type — it is not a measurement of this individual model.
Specifications
| Manufacturer | Shure |
|---|---|
| Model | Beta 87A |
| Type | Handheld condenser |
| Form factor | Handheld |
| Polar pattern | Supercardioid |
| Frequency range | 50–20,000 Hz |
| Sensitivity | 2 mV/Pa · -52.5 dBV/Pa |
| Max SPL | 140.5 dB SPL |
| Self-noise | 23.5 dB(A) |
| Impedance | 150 Ω (output) |
| Connector | XLR3M |
| Powering | phantom 11–52 V |
| Weight | 207 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
- FOH vocal
- Wireless handheld capsule
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.