In the early aughts, Latvian microphone company Blue announced that they'd be offering vintage Neumann and Telefunken U 47, U 48, and M 49 "restorations" on a limited basis, with some being sold direct to customers and a large majority of them winding up in Guitar Center stores across the United States with price tags in the $7,000 - $10,000 range. "Restoration" proved to be a rather misleading term, however, as there are few, if any, genuine vintage Neumann parts in or on these microphones, up to and including the body tube and head basket.

The electronic circuit of the microphone is entirely different from an original Neumann microphone, and Latvian-made Blue K47-type capsules were used. The U 47 and U 48 models essentially used the same circuit and power supply as the Blue Bottle microphone, while the M 49 models seemed to vary a bit, with some examples using AC701 tubes.