Tips for ribbon mic testing ? (Beyer M260N on sale)

Hi,

I'm about to check out an old Beyer M260N ribbon-mic someone has for sale here in town.
I can check it as his place, but most likely that won't be the best place to
do a proper evaluation. Yet I need to get an impression if this mic is still
decent after all these years.

Anybody got some tips ?

Would visually inspecting the ribbon give much guarantee ?

As I understood these mics can both have problems w.r.t. losing lows and highs,
dunno how that would translate to visible ribbon properties.

I was thinking of taking along a small mixer & recorder to make
some quick recordings of some percussion & whatever, and comparing it
to a known mic of my own (might take a 421 or 441).

Any thoughts welcomed !

Thanks,

  Peter

Hi Peter,

Just a few tips. Visual inspection of the ribbon will not tell you a great deal. Usually if it looks bad it will almost certainly sound bad. Conversely, often when they look good, they can still sound bad.

Bass loss is more likely with this mic, although they can go dark too. The bass response should be good, and it should sound thick at close proximity.

A comparison is a good idea, but the 421 and 441 sound nothing like an M260. The 441 sounds like a condenser almost, and the 421 has strong upper midrange and treble. The M260 will sound quiet, soft, and thick. I can't think of a dynamic which is similar. Another ribbon would be your best choice.

One issue which does happen with M260s is that they start to distort under high SPL (but are fine with quieter sources). This is probably due to ribbon/pole-piece rub. Try speaking loudly into the mic without blosing air inot. Obviously watch the gain to avoid clipping.

Hi Roddy, thanks for the info!

Will take the T-Bone potato along then (RB-500, my only ribbon so far) , thanks for the suggestion !

As I thought to have seen, the upper mesh is fixed with just three screws, a quick look inside won't hurt
but FWIW that, at least good to know that it won't tell all.

Cheers,

  Peter

also take note that there is a certain revision of this mic that has a built in HPF around 200hz...the older ones do not have this. search around the net and you will find this info.

Yes, that's the M260.80. All current M260s are acutally M260.80s. Afaik, the 80 refers to the low cut cutoff point. So it isn't really 200 Hz as some say. The mic sounds fairly nice at short distances; a bit like the M500 but a little flatter in the upper range. Beyer developed that version because the M260 was often used in conference systems etc in close miking situation. For all I know not all .80s are actually maked M260.80, so you have to listen to the actual mic.

Eeeeeee, case of a sick mic   :

no lows, no sensitivity*, no proximity effect, no impressive sound at all.

We compared it to a T-Bone RB-500 (who turned out to be an even more hefty bass-monster in comparison)
and because we couldn't believe the little bass of the M260N we compared it to a MD421 (grey, HPF on 'M').
The '421 had more bass than the Beyer as well as a normal proximity effect again.

Too bad, I wanted to have this mic but it obviously needs more work/money, which would double the price.

Hi outoftune, yep, the '.80'-version, knew about this but thanks for pointing out. The one we tested was
an older one, with the silver ring around the mesh and the blue-ish shaft (M260N, ser#654**).

OK, case closed I guess, thanks for the co-operation !

BTW, the seller had also a Beyer M360 (not for sale). Impressive chrome monster !
We also compared this one to the '260 & the T-Bone '500. While the '360 was still a bit bass-shy
(despite it's 30-20k spec) and as compared to the '500, it wasn't too weird like the '260.

So the question arose whether the T-Bone was simply too bass-heavy (I know it has a huge prox.effect)
or that the M360 was 'ribbroke' as well... At least it didn't have a much noticable proximity effect, if that could say something.


Bye,

 Peter


(*: yep, even for a ribbon as I think to know them)

Rossi said:

Yes, that's the M260.80. All current M260s are acutally M260.80s.

Click to expand...

Too bad they didn't make it switchable, but I dunno how they crafted the bass-cut (probably not easy to bypass).
I mean, that M260.80 sells new for EU215... Would be nice to have one new with a defeatable low-cut for say EU240...

For that price I couldn't buy that old M260N AND have it repaired...

Bye,

  Peter 

I wish I could have been around to check out the M360, which is a pretty rare mic (you're sure it wasn't a M320?) The M360 is a cardioid and the M320 a cardiod or hypercardoid, which means they have a slighter proximity effect than the figure-8 RB-500.

The M260.80 has an inbuilt low cut in the transformer (probably just lower inductance), so it can't be removed. You'd have to exchange the transformer, but it won't be easy to find one that fits except another Beyer ribbon transformer.

Imo the best bang for the buck Beyer ribbon in current production is the M160.

Btw. here's my review of the current beyer ribbons in Sound & Recording, a few years back. Beyer now have an english translation on their website. (Some stuff I would have translated differently, though):

=363&cHash=70d864ae56]http://www.beyerdynamic.de/en/home/press/test-reports/testberichte-pool/test-report/article/ribbon-microphone-legends.html?tx_ttnews[backPid]=363&cHash=70d864ae56

Rossi said:

I wish I could have been around to check out the M360, which is a pretty rare mic (you're sure it wasn't a M320?) The M360 is a cardioid and the M320 a cardiod or hypercardoid, which means they have a slighter proximity effect than the figure-8 RB-500.

Click to expand...

Hi Rossi,

It was a M360, (XLR, which might probably add a 'C' to the type-number and maybe there's an 'N' as well).
Cosmetically in an excellent state, shiny chrome. He might have had a M320 as well, but the complete collection wasn't open for visiting (I originally just came to testdrive that M260N).

A, too bad it's not just a simple switch-affair for the .80.

Thanks for that link to what you wrote, a nice read !

Bye,

  Peter