Following the success of the Nordic Audio Labs NU-24k – one of our best-selling microphones of 2025 – the company now introduces its most ambitious design to date.

VÄRI, the Finnish word for color, represents a new way of thinking about microphones. Just as the transition from monochrome to color permanently changed visual media, sound has always carried its own color – and microphones are the lenses through which that color is captured.

Legendary engineer Bruce Swedien once described microphones as colors in a palette, each with its own character and musical identity. That philosophy sits at the heart of the VÄRI Microphone System.

Nordic Audio Labs recently unveiled VÄRI to the public for the very first time at NAMM 2026, marking the debut of its new flagship platform.

A Long-Term Vision Realized

For decades, the most celebrated microphones in recording history have been prized for their musicality – but also defined by fragility, scarcity, and rising cost. Nearly twenty years ago, Nordic Audio Labs set out, together with Bruce Swedien, to create a microphone that could deliver the subjective beauty of revered vintage designs without their limitations. That journey has culminated in VÄRI.

Rather than recreating aging technologies, the VÄRI system is built from the ground up. High-quality microphone tubes have not been manufactured for over half a century, and maintaining vintage equipment is increasingly impractical. VÄRI replaces compromise with innovation, embracing modern materials, advanced manufacturing, and entirely new engineering concepts. The result is a fundamentally new microphone architecture, protected by a fresh patent application.

Beyond Traditional Trade-Offs

Classic condenser microphones have always involved trade-offs. Large-diaphragm designs offer weight and authority but often sacrifice speed and bandwidth, while small-diaphragm microphones excel in clarity yet lack depth on sources like lead vocals.

With VÄRI, that compromise is no longer necessary.

By rethinking both capsule and circuitry, Nordic Audio Labs has created a system capable of delivering the best attributes of both approaches – extended bandwidth, fast transient response, depth, and musical weight – within a single microphone.

Sound Quality Starts at the Capsule

While many modern microphones attempt to achieve versatility through interchangeable capsules, digital modeling, or post-processing, VÄRI takes a different approach. Fundamental sound quality cannot be fixed after the fact. Just as image processing cannot replace a high-quality lens, no downstream correction can fully compensate for limitations at the source.

VÄRI begins at the capsule itself. Audio is captured with ultra-high resolution, a wide dynamic range, low noise floor, and a naturally balanced frequency response. From this neutral foundation, sound is shaped in real time with true zero latency, using acoustic and electronic principles inspired by the spirit of classic tubes, transformers, and passive components.

125 Colors, One Microphone

The VÄRI Microphone System offers 125 distinct sound characters, stored in permanent, repeatable banks and accessed through three intuitive controls:

• LOW – from light and controlled to deep and powerful

• MID – from subtly scooped through neutral to strongly forward

• HI – from smooth, dark vintage tones to modern, open brightness

Though simple in operation, these controls perform complex tonal shaping. Some sounds feel immediately familiar; others introduce entirely new sonic identities. All have been carefully curated in collaboration with highly respected engineers and producers.

A Unified System

VÄRI consists of a high-performance integrated microphone and a dedicated control unit, engineered as a single, coherent signal chain. At its core are the proprietary D100K capsule and VäriDRIVE™ electronics, forming an ultra-neutral, high-resolution platform from which the full spectrum of VÄRI’s colors emerges.

The result is a microphone system that faithfully captures the tonal richness, dynamics, and harmonic complexity of the most sought-after vintage microphones – while extending far beyond them.

Nordic Audio Labs VÄRI is expected to be available from Q2 2026!

Want to preorder or test Nordic Audio Labs products? Contact us:

sales@msonic.ee

+372 5399 1710