MXL R144 Transformer Replacement

[saxmonster]

Thanks for the heads up James.

It will stay un modded then hahaha

 

[GregNey]

I personally don't think the R144 is a good mic. I don't like the way it is designed/shaped. It feels and sounds like the ribbon is caged in. I think the RSM4 or RSM5 are better out of the box and also better candidates for modding.

 

[mabell313]

I personally don't think the R144 is a good mic. I don't like the way it is designed/shaped. It feels and sounds like the ribbon is caged in. I think the RSM4 or RSM5 are better out of the box and also better candidates for modding.

I partially agree with you. The Nady ribbons are much more user friendly and better out of the box. The R144 sounds like the ribbon is caged in because it is caged in! It needs to have it's "extra" inner windscreen modded/removed. There is just too much in the way in there. A modded R144 "should" be just as good as a modded RSM-4/5 because there are only 3 real pieces to a ribbon. I say "should" be because I have never modded a R144 but have the Nady. 1.8 micron foil, great interconnect wire and a nice transformer should get any ribbon sounding great quickly. I have seen many negative comments on the Edcor ribbon mic trans and have to disagree. With the thick(4~6 microns!) foil, the Edcor DOES NOT make a huge difference. But with thinner foil (1.8~2.5 microns), the Edcor does trans sounds better. It is a copy of a 1953 RCA ribbon mic trans. A mic which most likely had the proper thickness ribbon to start with! So, with the thick Chinese foil, the Edcor is a waste of money. The thicker foil is used on all the cheap Chinese mics to protect people from their own stupidity. In reality the thicker foil is used more for live sound reinforcment applications and the thinner foil is used more for studio applications. But, if I had to choose between the Nady and the MXL, I would still go for the Nady hands down.

 

[sebzepunker]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to add a pre amp circuit on that microphone, who will be alim by p48. Did somebody already try this?

 

[dmp]

I replaced the ribbon in a r144 this weekend with 1.8um foil. First impression - huge improvement. The mic seems very transparent now.
Going to pick up a second to do a comparison to stock and then mod for a pair...

 

[Dylan W]

I replaced the ribbon in a r144 this weekend with 1.8um foil. First impression - huge improvement. The mic seems very transparent now.
Going to pick up a second to do a comparison to stock and then mod for a pair...

I've been wanting to do this to mine--from whom did you source the foil? I've seen a guy selling the 1.8 um stuff from New Zealand... he also advocates using paper crimping gears from Ebay to corrugate the ribbon.

Dylan

 

[dmp]

There's a company listed earlier in this thread where I got the foil.
I would like to improve my crimping method. I just used the top of some pill bottles and it was hard to make it clean.

 

[ricardo]

I'd like to add a pre amp circuit on that microphone, who will be alim by p48. Did somebody already try this?

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=5743.80 is PRR's circuit for this.  I've got a slightly quieter version in my Yahoo MicBuilders Files directory.  I don't think either is worth it unless you have a nominal 30-50R ribbon.