Thinking seriously of .a stereo ribbon

About a year ago, I had the AEA stereo ribbon, a Royer SF-12, and the Mesanovic stereo ribbon side-by-side in my studio for a few days. The AEA was far too dark and muddy for me. The Royer had many fine qualities, but the bass response falls off sharply around 30Hz, and for some bass-register instruments I record, that was an audible issue. The Mesanovic (for me) had it all: massive and extended bass response, clear, full top end, rich mids, and incredible stereo imaging; I daresay the imaging was better than the AEA or Royer. I bought the Mesanovic, and keep thinking of buying a 2nd one. However, the schools of ribbons (vintage (AEA) vs. modern (Mesanovic)) are very much a personal thing. They were all exceedingly fine mics, but the Mesanovic totally and entirely blew me away, based on my aesthetics and application and personal taste. You may owe it to yourself to check it out:

www.mesanovicmicrophones.com/model-2s

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the company; I know I sound like an ad, but seriously I find it stunning.

I also have a Cascade X-15.  Far less $ than the Mesanovic, but I really like it.  More in the modern camp instead of vintage.  

www.cascademicrophones.com/cascade_x15-stereo-ribbon.html

Regards,
-09

The Samar is very good.  VL373A is the dedicated stereo version.  I have the MF65's with the Blumlein mount. 

It's on my bucket list, haha. Nice thread.

Stated geometry of the Mesanovic mic, as well as the ribbon thickness, is roughly the same as the R88. He appears to be using a higher turns ratio output transformer(1:36 stated on the website), which wouldn't set the output impedence to 250 ohms as stated, but that's just geekin on the numbers. Realistically it would be more like 330 ohms.

Ribbon thickness won't have much to do with how modern a ribbon mic sounds. The 4038 uses a ribbon 3 times thinner than these two mics, so that would make it "futuristic sounding" =)

That said, all of the microphones listed certainly sound good, and are worthy of consideration.

I don't make a stereo ribbon mic, so I get to say these things, right? =P

Hey Thanks Monkeyxx,

I love me some ribbon mics

I should also note that the X15 (PPA R-2) often suffers from ribbon sag, and sounds a lot better with a higher quality ribbon installed. I've done a bunch of them over the years (PPA was local to me, so a lot of local people had me repair/reribbon them). That said, for the money they sound pretty good. New ribbons and better output transformers makes them more respectable.


I've also worked on several of the B&O stereo ribbons (BM6). Personally, I'd steer away from them. The magnets they use were of low quality, and lose their magnetism over time, so they often suffer from extremely anemic output. I think that Stewart in the UK (xaudia.com) rebuilds them with new magnets, so if you land a deal on one, they can be brought up to snuff again. That said (I have one in for repair right now), other people like the sound of them.

Coles make a stereo ribbon, the 4050. Has a super cool magnetic mounting system, but I don't see a lot of mention of it, and haven't worked with them personally.

That covers all the stereo ribbons I can think of, are there others?

Peluso makes one too, right?

I'm endorsed by them, but any of Royer's SF stereo ribbons are amazing.

Now, if you want and are able to make a solid investment the SF-24v is probably one of the most impressive mic's I've ever heard. It can pull out things in instruments and voice like none other, and what it does just brings you to an awe. They are in the $5k range, but you can put that mic in front of anything and it's going to sound incredible. Plus, just seeing first hand how much love those guys put into building each mic that goes out is impressive in itself, they really care about what goes out of their shop, a pretty big company that operates like a little boutique one. Some amazing gentleman that head it up too.

We have a Cascade X15 stereo ribbon fitted with Lundahl transformers which is our go-to mic for our 100 year old pump organ. We use it in M/S mode.

Maybe you should make a stereo ribbon!

SF12 is probably the best of the bunch IMHO.

I second that notion, could always use another stereo ribbon option.

BTW Jon - just got the two shiny box ribbons you sent me...can't wait to try them out. If I have time I'll record a few things with them and post them hear.

I am also thinking about picking up a Mesanovic model 2S possibly. Not too many demos of it out there on drums. But the one I heard on their site sounded perfect.