> First interference tubes, now parabolic dishes, my how times change!
Schoeps wasn't always a "monoculture". At first they developed a tape recorder--the second ever to use AC bias, after the original AEG "Magnetophon". (They made a dozen of those and sold maybe nine; times were hard.) They also installed sound systems for movie theaters and meeting halls. Then they turned their attention to condenser microphones. But at some point in the early 1950s, apparently they also considered developing dynamic microphones, since one prototype model still survives.
Maybe about 20 years ago by now, they worked seriously on a large-diaphragm, single-diaphragm (of course!) cardioid for studio vocal recording. It, too, got to the "early prototype" stage but was then shelved. Much more recently, under the new leadership, they developed the V4 which covers the same territory in a more Schoeps-like way. I only have one, so I've never tried it as a main microphone for stereo concert recording, but I suspect that it might be good in some of the ways that the cardioid setting of the MK 6 was so good.
Actually if you look on all the side alleyways of their Web site, you'll see that in the past 10+ years or so, Schoeps has catering a lot to surround recording. Partly this is because that's a specialty area that Dr. Wittek knows a lot about. But it's also because German TV is very technically advanced and competitive in this area, especially where sports events are concerned. The parabolic dish is in line with that market--it obviously has no application to high-quality concert recording.
--best regards