Limited Edition AEA 44ACE

I can't imagine anyone not liking the top end on a AEA 44, of any iteration. I am intimately familiar with the 44CE, so it will be interesting to say the least. I wonder how different your friends RCA 44BX is to the A440. The A440 has a whole lot more gain and the impedance matching is quite different. I wonder what preamplifier he was using to make this comparison. Personally, I would prefer to compare the passive versions to the RCA. But, that's up to each user anyway.

Active, the sound will no longer be REactive with the preamp. No mixing of recipes.

I had an AEA a440 for years. I was hesitant to buy it, but I got a really good deal. I now have an AEA r44c.
The a440 is brighter and has a ton of gain (something I dislike in any mic - let me use the preamp for that).

The AEA r44c is about as sweet and creamy as a mic can be. You can hit it with any signal. Horns, piano, EG and AG - wow. It doesn't have that grainy sound of a coles 4038 (which has a much shorter ribbon and is why I want a pair of coles for overs). but unlike the Coles the R44 has a realness to the capture that is totally unique.

I would say the AEA R44c is 100% the same mic as an original RCA.

Hmm... Reminds me to buy a lottery ticket today. So... I can buy the "right house", with enough space, to give my new 44 justice. Imagine the real estate agent, hearing that one! Well, an ocean view would be a nice-secondary-consideration.
Chris

IN the EV microphones, when they started making models with Neodyn magnets, although they were dynamics, the sound was noticeably more focused or pointed and the signal to noise ratio increased dramatically. But with ribbons, this is where an expert like markfouxman would help. I wish Wes Dooley were here.

I'll shoot him a message and ask him to join us. Unless anyone objects

The answer to this question is in the fact the stronger the magnetic field, the more change of motion impedance of the transducer. The easiest way to describe this effect is just imagine, if we short the ribbon it will stop moving--exactly the same effect happens when you say, short a winding of DC motor--that will be quite hard to turn it.

Since the ribbons have extremely low impedance (typically, in a fraction of Ohm) that would be quite hard to do directly, as the shorting path DC resistance can be comparable to that of the ribbon. However, if we do it through the transformer secondary then because of the high ratio, reflected to the primary impedance becomes very low--that's what will restrict the ribbon motion (that's in fact, how some manufacturers do protect their ribbons during the shipping--just shorting the XLR pins--that reflected back to the ribbon, restricting its movement).

Obviously, the lower the magnetic field, the softer this effect will be. Now, imagine, the ribbon is loaded with an input impedance of the preamp. So again, the loading comes back to the ribbon through the transformer, which is a two-way device. Say, we have a transformer of some 1:35 ratio and loaded with a standard 1.5kΩ impedance of the modern preamp (that's how we design our own ribbons). Then the ribbon will 'see' the load of 1500/35^2=1.22Ω. That will load the ribbon of some 0.15-0.2Ω impedance/resistnace. While the load is about 10 times higher, that effect still will be there--the stronger the field, the more controlled the ribbon movement is--exactly how you described the effect--more focused and pointed the sound is.

Very often we replace old and tired Alnico magnets, which lost their magnetic properties, with modern Neodymiums in B&O ribbons and invariably observe this phenomenon.

Best, M