t.bone ribbons

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Lars Farm wrote:
> Thomanns carry two cheap ribbon mics. The t.bone RB500 (thomanns #
> 172090) (aka Nady? aka...?) and the t.bone RM700 (thomanns # 180190)?
> I've seen the RB500 (Nady?) mentioned. Any info on these cheap ribbon
> mics?

They're likely to be variable-quality Chinese mics, possibly clones of
something better known. I like Thomann but prefer to use them for
branded goods where I know what I'm getting. I've heard that they are
good about taking stuff back if you don't like it, so if you trust your
ears enough you could take the plunge and find out what they are like,
send'em back if they're obviously rubbish.

The other thing about cheap mics is you may get a good one, but that's
no guarantee that the next one will be the same.

--
Anahata
anahata@treewind.co.uk -+- http://www.treewind.co.uk
Home: 01638 720444 Mob: 07976 263827

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Lars Farm wrote:
> Thomanns carry two cheap ribbon mics. The t.bone RB500 (thomanns #
> 172090) (aka Nady? aka...?) and the t.bone RM700 (thomanns # 180190)?
> I've seen the RB500 (Nady?) mentioned. Any info on these cheap ribbon
> mics? Esp. the RM700 that I've seen nothing about.
>
> RB500: http://www.thomann.de/thoiw5_the_t [...] dinfo.html
> RM700: http://www.thomann.de/thoiw5_artikel-180190.html
>
> L
>
>

We picked up a pair of the TapeOp ribbon's which are
most likely the same as the Nady, etc. There was a post
on the TapeOp message board (before it went down a few
weeks ago) about modifying these mics by removing some
of the protective screening inside. Supposedly this
improved the top and bottom end considerably, but made
them more fragile.

I carefully removed the inner metal screen on ours, but
kept the silk (nylon?) windscreens intact and we've been
using the pair about 6 ft. in front of drum kits for
room mics through a VMP-2 preamp and they sound
incredible in that application. That's the only way
we've used them sucessfully so far. I quickly tried them
on piano and was underwhelmed so switched to something
else. Haven't tried them on horns yet.

They do sound best with some distance from the source as
the bottom end boost is a bit woofy.
--
--
John Noll
Retromedia Sound Studios
Red Bank, NJ

jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net

http://www.retromedia.net

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

In article <znr1123498286k@trad>, Mike Rivers <mrivers@d-and-d.com> wrote:
>In article <42F6A551.1050009@verizon.net> jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net writes:
>
>> There was a post
>> on the TapeOp message board (before it went down a few
>> weeks ago) about modifying these mics by removing some
>> of the protective screening inside.
>
>No more TapeOp forum? I wasn't a regular participant, but I thought
>that it was pretty popular.

The screening is interesting... when they copied the AEA mike, they
used whatever perfed metal was lying around at the Chinese factory,
rather than the very-carefully engineered perf that AEA used. This
means the resonant frequency of the ribbon isn't anywhere near where
it's supposed to be. Just another example of somebody copying a design
without understanding it.

Removing the perfed "pop shield" is not a bad idea, but the right thing
to do is to replace it with one made from the correct material with
the right sized perfs.

But I'd bet that just replacing the loose wiring in there with carefully
twisted 14ga solid core between the ribbon and transformer would reduce
the distortion by an order of magnitude. That would be the first change
I'd make.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."