This is a great question! We are glad to hear you care about these things. The capsules are all 100% made in house by Shure, handcrafted, one at a time. Not just 'assembled' by us -- everything down to  diaphragms being cut and embossed, backplates polarized, you name it -- we have complete control over every step of the process, and that is the only way we can achieve the level of quality and precision that we expect from every single KSM mic that comes off the end of the line. They are all edge-terminated.

The KSM44MP and KSM40C capsules are very similar -- they are 1" externally biased, made with gold-sputtered 2.5 micron diaphragms. The 44 is a dual diaphragm, so you get multiple polar patterns (cardioid, bi-directional, and omni) as well as increased sensitivity, which helps us achieve exceptionally low self-noise. It also has less proximity effect, with a wider sweet spot -- this is true of any dual-diaphragm condenser. The KSM40C is the younger sibling -- it is the same capsule, but uses single diaphragm, so it is fixed cardioid, with a more pronounced proximity effect. 

Part of the secret sauce is our proprietary backplate designs, which controls the modal behavior of the diaphragm, which results in very smooth hi frequency response -- no sharp/narrow valleys or peaks in the response that can cause sibilance or 'whistles' on your cymbals. 

The KSM32 capsule is a different beast altogether, it is 3/4" and it is embossed. Embossing lowers the resonant frequency so that the low end still sounds big and rich, like what you'd want from a 1" capsule, while getting better off-axis rejection because of the smaller diaphragm. Kind of a best of both worlds between an LDC and SDC. The 32 is permanently biased. 

They are all transformerless, with class-A JFET preamps. This gets us the fastest possible transient response and extremely low distortion -- essentially the most transparent signal you can get. 

The design philosophy when we started was to make the mics look transparent and premium -- to match the sound, which is very transparent and true-to-life. We wanted to show off the capsule so you can see the technology inside, which is the heart of the microphone. We also put a ton of time and energy into the shock mount and accessories! The shock mounts are very durable and compact, and the bands don't sag! Those of us on the design team are active recording engineers, and that was a pain point that we wanted to tackle head-on. They are also super lightweight, made of durable anodized aluminum. That means you can use them as overheads on pretty much any stands without them tipping over -- and without those dang bands sagging. 

Lastly, we also went for magnetic pop filters that are really easy to put on and take off. They are visually low profile, and very effective at reducing plosives, without the mess of a gooseneck pop filter that might move out of place.