Its maximum pickup sensitivity lies on its major mechanical axis, and hence was called a uni-axial type microphone. A dual layer blast filter was mounted in the front of the ribbon to offer protection from extremely high sound pressure level noises.
Like the 77D or DX, the rear side of its ribbon was coupled to an acoustic labyrinth having phase shift openings. This labyrinth gave the BK-5 its unidirectional characteristic. A matching transformer and voice or music response switch were also mounted in the body of the microphone.
The BK-5 could be either mounted on a desk stand or hung from a boom on its special boom mounting adapter