Microtech Gefell GmbH

About us

Microtech Gefell designs, manufactures and supplies microphones and acoustic systems. A customer oriented approach is practiced to achieve the optimal usability of our products in their daily use.

The products themselves should be regarded as special tools having particular properties appropriate for their intended applications, and perform at the highest quality level.

Every single product is assembled by hand by our specialists, then tested and calibrated.

The experience amassed is applied to ensure that product quality is maintained or bettered.

A complete company approach results in the acoustics, electronic and mechanical development, design, product management, production, marketing and sales, as well as technical service and support, all coming together under one roof in Gefell.

Even the complete manufacturing process is, as far as possible, carried out in-house, and ranges from fabricating the membranes, the microphone capsules and the electronic circuitry right through to the housings and the mechanical pieces.

A dedicated team at our headquarters in Gefell takes care of sales and customer support, and a global network of distribution and sales partners provide their customers with the best possible connection to our company.

Brief history

The development and production of acoustic measurement and studio technology by the Georg Neumann company and its today's Microtech Gefell GmbH is based on more than 90 years of experience.

Georg Neumann & Co. – the starting point in 1928 -

1928 Georg Neumann and Erich Rickmann established the limited partnership Georg Neumann & Co. The idea behind this new company lies in manufacturing microphones following the capacitive transducer concept. An aim they manage to achieve for the first time in serial production with the condenser legendary microphone CMV 3.

1933 participation at the „Große Deutsche Funkausstellung” leaded to a massive rise of sales within Germany and of exports. During this time, representations are set up in England, France, the USA and India.

1936 the Olympic Games in Berlin provided the first live test for the classic M 7 electrode in a tube set-up as developed by Georg Neumann. It is still manufactured to this day. The so-called „Neumann bottle” can already be equipped with different capsules in order to change patterns. The path that the company has chosen since its founding proves to be the right one. Extensive practical experience leads to a continuous improvement of products.

1937-The beginning of acoustic Measurement technology

In the course of these years, the company Siemens & Halske was dealing with the basics of the development of condenser microphone capsules for sound pressure meters. The company Georg Neumann produced in special-purpose production such converters of the type Rel mph 9 Tz 20, also referred to as „Bahnkapsel“, for the company Siemens.

1943 Relocation from Berlin to Gefell

1943 during the Second World War, the principal laboratory in Berlin damaged both by fire and bombs. To avoid further bombings, the entire company and the principal laboratory was transferred to Gefell.

1945/46 Germany is divided into four sectors after the surrender. Thuringia, initially occupied by the Americans is exchanged for a part of Berlin (Potsdam Treaty) and handed over to the Soviet Union, which changes the situation in Gefell completely.

1947 employees returning from Gefell establish a small workshop in Berlin (West) mainly for repair of microphones. This workshop becomes Georg Neumann GmbH, the second Neumann company, now owned by Sennheiser.

After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 the socialist GDR also cut off the communication that had existed until then between Georg Neumann & Co. in Gefell and Georg Neumann GmbH in Berlin.

In 1972 the limited partnership Georg Neumann & Co. in Gefell was expropriated and renamed VEB Mikrofontechnik Gefell. Further use of the Neumann brand was prohibited by the GDR. Instead, the products were now marked with the RFT brand.

1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall the Treuhandanstalt takes charge of the Gefell company in with the aim of reprivatising it. The expropriated limited partnership Georg Neumann & Co. files for restitution of its company.

1993 the company Microtech Gefell GmbH was returned to the limited partnership Georg Neumann & Co.– now Georg Neumann KG. After more than twenty years of state imposed the company now produces under the new registered trademark.

Measurement technology Made in Gefell

After World War II the company Georg Neumann Gefell produced, internal developments of the type MM 10 a and MM 10 b as measuring device in order to monitor the internal series production.
The range of uses also included acoustic measurements of
potential TKO (Technical controlling body ) - consumers, among other things for departments of the ASMW (Bureau for Standardisation, Metrology and Product testing of the GDR) as well.

1955/1956 the company developed, in collaboration with the Telecommunications plant Berlin, a measurement microphone for sound level meters.

1957-1961
Prof. Dr. Ing. Wolfgang Kraak was the head of the acoustics department of the research centre of the GDR‘s aviation industry and until 1966 involved in the F&E management of the VEB Schwingungstechnik und Akustik Dresden, which was subsequently integrated into VEB Robotron Messelektronik „Otto Schön“ Dresden. Components from suppliers were required for laboratory equipment measuring systems of acoustics, of the vibration technology and shock measurement and analysis.

In collaboration with the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin and the company Georg Neumann Gefell, Dr. Ing. Wolfgang Kraak encouraged the development of condenser measurement microphones. This is until today, the basis for the current measurement microphones series production of the 1 inch, 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch converter types of the Microtech Gefell GmbH.

Using their own patents, new technologies were developed, which meet the quality requirements of class 1 for long-term and environmentally stable condenser measurement
microphone capsules according to DIN IEC 60657/ 60672.

Every year, several measurement capsule and microphone quantities in the three-digit range, type-approved by the ASMW of the GDR, were primarily supplied for the Eastern Bloc COMECON area from the 60s onwards.

The measurement microphone capsules are designed until today for acoustic measurements in research, development and industry and are used, among other things, in architectural acoustics and the audiometry.

Studio technology after World War II

In the 1950's, the radio stations in Berlin were rebuilt and production in Gefell continued, both of the well known types of microphones and of new ones e.g. tube microphone preamplifier CMV 563 and tube condenser microphone UM 57.

In the three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s, production in the studio sector was mainly oriented towards the requirements of broadcasting. In close cooperation with the Rundfunk und Fernsehtechnisches Zentralamt (RFZ), a large number of new microphones for Broadcast & Recording as well as Livesound & Installation were developed and produced.

Today Microtech Gefell products have earned a worldwide reputation amongst professional users as precise and reliable tools in fields spanning from acoustic measurement, recording studios and radio and television, to mobile sound reinforcement and fixed installations in parliaments and conference venues.

Microphones from Gefell - tradition meets innovation

Following the original founding ideals of Georg Neumann, Microtech Gefell combines classical engineering, traditional values and modern manufacturing techniques.
Each and every product is handcrafted, tested and measured, using only processes that ensure the quality of the products.

For this reason, acoustic, electronic and mechanical development, design, product management, production, marketing, sales as well as technical support and service are all located under one roof at the Gefell site. Production itself is also carried out as completely as possible in-house.

A dedicated team in Gefell takes care of global sales and individual customer support, ensuring that the company is as close as possible to its customers.