Over £100k of recording equipment stolen from London's KMR Audio

Recording equipment thought to worth upwards of £100k has been stolen from London-based audio store KMR Audio, though the burglars reportedly forgot mandatory power supplies.

In a post on KMR Audio's Facebook page, the store said that a number of microphones ranging from mid to high end were taken from the premises a few nights before July 27.

Since the burglars forgot the mandatory power supplies for the equipment, the post read: “We don’t expect [the equipment will] be of much use to either themselves or to anybody else who knows about these things! This helps narrow down the field somewhat - we’re on the lookout for crims with very high IQ’s - possibly in possession of an Oxbridge masters in 'Why Isn’t This Making Any Noise' or similar.”

Included in the shoplifted equipment were a Neumann U87Ai - the same model used to record Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ and Mavin Gaye’s acclaimed ‘What’s Going On’ - a Flea ELA M 251 and a Sony C800G priced at a hefty £11,500.

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A few months ago, techno producer Pfirter shared via his Instagram that £15,000 worth of equipment was stolen from his studio whilst he was away on tour. Unfortunately since he was still financially recovering from the effects of the pandemic, he was unable to immediately replace the equipment and a GoFundMe was set up to help.

The caption read that “I can’t explain how it feels to come back to your place and see that all the essential material things are gone. Everything that I invested in the past ten years […] is now in someone else’s hands.”

The individuals who took the equipment clearly were unaware that their £100k goodie bag is essentially useless without the corresponding power supplies. The store is urging anyone who sees suspiciously low priced microphones on eBay to contact them via their email address - [email protected]

The KMR Audio facebook page has a comprehensive list of the stolen items, which can be accessed here.

Tiffanie Ibe is Mixmag’s Digital Intern, follow her on Instagram