Neumann KM184 + SSL2 = weak signal which requires a lot of gain

[Ricardus]

And now he seems to be gone.

Dude. Get over it and move on. You're belaboring a ridiculously pedantic point.

 

[Rja4000]

I get about nothing from 1-5 on a gain knob scale of 10.

its easy to check, I guess.
use the SSL output to feed the mic input (without phantom power. I hope you can disable it)
You'll be able to check the linearity of gain pot (you may use REW for that)

I picked the KM184 as I have heard it on spoken word and it sounds very natural compared to many what I believe are bass boosted mics (not sure about the terminology here). In fact, it's used by Swedish Radio on their daily news channel where they only have spoken word.

Radios are using SMC cardioid microphones when they want to keep the microphone at some distance.
Personnaly, for speach, I use a DPA 4066 headset. That's an omni, used in close proximity.
It's very natural.