If a recorder has no phantom powering or a microphone input is unbalanced as in many portable recorders and wireless microphone transmitters, a phantom-powered microphone can be awkward to use. For these and other situations SCHOEPS offers the CMBI, a battery-powered microphone amplifier with unbalanced output.

Combine this with one of 19 microphone capsules of the Colette Series and you obtain a microphone which is acoustically equivalent to the balanced version using a CMC microphone amplifier.

The CMBI features a readily available internal 6 V silver oxide battery which, combined with power-saving circuitry, gives up to 80 hours of operation.
About 6 hours before the end of battery life a built-in LED begins to light up as a warning.

In addition to battery operation, the CMBI allows for external powering through a standard XLR microphone cable. (The included K 5 ISK cable is not suitable for this mode of operation.)