Shure History

Shure is a consumer and professional audio electronics corporation. Shure mainly produces microphones and other audio electronics, but also produces high-end personal monitors.

Shure was founded in 1925 as The Shure Radio Company under an audio magnate named Sidney Shure. The company is based in United States, and has been a Chicagoland company since its founding, when Sidney Shure worked out of an office in downtown Chicago. The company moved to Evanston, Illinois in 1956. In 2002, Shure Incorporated relocated to an award-winning [1] office building in Niles, Illinois. The building was designed by renowned architect Helmut Jahn, and was originally the headquarters of HA•LO Industries.

Shure produces a vast array of microphones, among which the well known SM and Beta series of dynamic and condenser microphones. The series includes SM48, SM58 (the standard and most used microphone for live vocals), SM86, SM87A (primarily for vocal reproduction) and SM57 (used to mic guitar amps, drums, brass instruments, etc...), SM94 and SM81 (often used for strings, pianos, overhead drum mics, large choirs). The Beta 52A and Beta 91 are two of the most common microphones used for kick drums. The SM57 and SM58, and their more modern variants, the Beta 57A and 58A, are some of the most widely used microphones in the world, particularly for live sound reproduction.

The top line of Shure microphones is the KSM series. These mics are primarily used in recording, but do have some applications to live sound, such as overhead drum mics or for use with guitar and bass amplifiers. The KSM series includes the KSM 27, KSM 32, KSM 44, KSM 109, KSM 137 and the KSM 144. The new KSM 9 microphone recently debuted. It is the first microphone in the KSM line made for use with live vocals.

Shure's dynamic mics are popular because they are inexpensive, sound good, and are extremely durable. For example, in the 1970s Roger Daltrey of the Who often used industrial tape to secure a Shure SM58 to his microphone cord, then swung it around in huge arcs from the stage. On occasion, it would strike the floor or PA equipment, yet keep working.

Other Shure microphone series include the Performance Gear (PG), Classic Gear (CG) and Specialty Consumer (SC). There is also several lines of wireless microphones, most of them wireless versions of their wired models, and personal monitors and monitoring systems.