On a final note, it really annoys me when I see people on forums like Harmony Central complaining that whatever mic they are reviewing has no pads or filters, especially when it is a lower priced mic.  Folks, get this straight::  good pad and filter circuitry with good switching is not easy to design, and not as cheap to integrate as you'd think.  Remember, I said good circuitry.  I have had otherwise great sounding mics lose fidelity, not just few db of gain, by turning on the pad.   With modern mics now handling incredible SPLs of 140db and above, there is rarely a need for a pad but......this mic is the exception, and I must sympathize with that complaint in this case.  This must be simply the loudest mic on the market!   It is a fantastic rock vocal mic, but even some blaring male vocals can force you to engage pads on your preamp, and STILL be concerned about clipping.  But on the positive side, sometimes that simple, no switch circuitry can contribute to a mic's fidelity, and transformer or no transformer, that may be the case here.  Besides, the sensitivity can be a plus on the right source, since you need less preamp gain, thus making your recording even quieter than the already insane self noise of 7dba.  I believe that, along with the very clean open sound of this mic; the self noise along with the sensitivity are a few reasons why the 103 is a first call mic for orchestral recording.

So if you have a couple of versatile mics in your locker, and you want to cover one more base:  Clean, full, high fidelity with low noise and high sensitivity, you can't go wrong.  And the day you match the TLM 103 with the right voice, your jaw may even drop. 

Enjoy!

Donn