It's the greatest story ever told:

Stanley Church was once head sound engineer for Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the mid-50s, and during his administrative tenure, he somehow found the time to design and hand-build about 200 custom microphones for in-house use.

Pearlman Microphones has gotten its hands on the original schematics for the "Church" microphone and effectively resurrected the storied large-diaphragm condenser for a new market.

It wasn't as easy as merely unearthing the designs, however. The original circuit called for a very specific Traid Transformer which went out of production in the 1960s. At first, Pearlman thought about enlisting intrepid adventure archaeologist Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr. to locate any remaining examples before admitting that, really, isn't he too old for that kind of thing anymore? Luckily, Pearlman wa able to convince a manufacturing firm to produce NOS Triad Transformers exclusively or them on a limited basis.

The rest of the design has been adhered to just as faithfully: the same Neumann M7 capsule is used, as is a hand selected GE five-star 6072 dual triode (12AY7) vacuum tube. Even the power amplifier is being hand-built, and the cabling is all handmade Mogami. The Pearlman "Church" Microphone retails for $4500, or 1/4th what the original Church MGM mics now go for.