The C-42's addition to the Mercenary Audio offering of items came as the culmination of several coincidences converging at once. Josephson Engineering had long been known in high end microphone circles for their fine, hand crafted product. David Josephson gave us a call and mentioned that they were actually about to start building a "production model" [in other words, a mic that was produced in quantity as opposed to the "one off" builds they had been doing for years]. It was at this time that Mercenary had dropped the Neumann line of mics. While the Neumann KM-184 was a pale substitute for the original KM-84 it did have its place. When the folks at Josephson Engineering sent over the C-42 to try we very quickly forgot about the KM-184 and fell in love with the C-42. While the "vintage" KM-84 has a thickness to it the KM-184 didn't. The C-42 does. It also has a bit of extra sparkle on the top end which makes it perfect for High Hats, Drum Overheads, Acoustic Guitar, Cello, and even Piano. If you're just thinking of using for say High Hat then get the single unit... if you're thinking of using it for Piano, Drum Overheads, etc... then the "C-42 MP" [matched pair] is for you!!!