Piston Ribbon Tuning (Beyer mics)

[fum]

I know that this is possible - but it is not the "original" thing, cause it just doesn't sound exactly the same. The piston ribbons are more rigid, you can leave the mics hanging over the drums for months without risk of ribbon sag. Also, the piston has more output and some better distortion measurements - but this is theory and I can't confirm from experiments, but that is how it is told.

To be clear, what Marik puts in the microphone is not the original thing either (at least I've seen no claim from him that it is the original thing, not trying to speak for him). It can be close, and in the direction of, but still not the original thing.

I know Marik, and respect his transducer work, but I know from decades of working on ribbon transducers the subtleties involved.

AFAIN the ribbon motors in the beyer mics are pretty similar - at least the ribbon itself looks the same in the M160, M260 and M320 mics I saw. So it came to me as a surprise that Beyerdynamic told me, that they can't service the M320 anymore. If they replace the whole ribbon motor on a M160 rather than just replacing the ribbon, could it be that this whole assembly is done by a machine rather than a human? otherwise I really don't get it why they can't do that.

The M320/360, M260, and M500 have ever so slightly longer ribbons than the M160. I don't disagree that they should be able to do it, why they choose not to, I do not know. It could be that if they open up the gates of replacing ribbons for these models, that people would ask for parts, which they no longer have.

Just out of interest: How will I know, what magnets my M160 do have? I have sort of pretty new ones, let's say from the 2000's or later. Would be interested to know....

You have to disassemble the microphone to get a view at the magnets used. I have pictures of both the old style alnico M160, and one of the new neodymium motors on my instagram page, if you are interested.

To someones previous comment, you can see in these pictures that there are three vertical corrugations in the original piston ribbon.

neodymium:


alnico:


Regards
Jon

 

[raketenmann]

To be clear, what Marik puts in the microphone is not the original thing either (at least I've seen no claim from him that it is the original thing, not trying to speak for him). It can be close, and in the direction of, but still not the original thing.

Yes, I got that. I tried to find the post by Samar on Gearspace that introduced the new piston service für Beyer mics with all the nice advertisement sentences, but can't. I just read that post a couple months ago and saved Samar in my head. I remember that Samar advertised that the offer piston corrugated ribbons for Beyerdynamic mics, that they we're made out of a special material that doesn't get bad over years and that the distortion measurements, bass und hi-end extension would be superb to the original Beyer ribbons. Well - don't ask me if it's true, but it sounds definitely very very good. I remember the price around 150.- dollar. Here in Europe I would at least pay 200.- or more to replace the ribbon with a zig zag style, so it is definitely worth a shot!

You have to disassemble the microphone to get a view at the magnets used. I have pictures of both the old style alnico M160, and one of the new neodymium motors on my instagram page, if you are interested.

I will check mine, thanks! The alnico magnets look exactly as the ones in my M320.

What about the sound differences?

 

[fum]

What about the sound differences?

The neodymium motor is higher output, and handles high frequencies differently (a little brighter, more articulate), to my ear.

 

[zebra50]

>Here in Europe I would at least pay 200.- or more to replace the ribbon with a zig zag style...

I'll leave the piston vs RCA argument aside for one moment.

Just to say we don't charge anything close to that amount for our Beyer repairs. Nowhere near that.

I understand that Samar stopped offering repairs some time ago. I'm sure he'll chime in if I got that wrong,

Have fun.
S.

 

[Whoops]

Last time (in 2022) I asked for a quote for the full motor assembly for the Beyer M160 it was $159 with free shipping from Full Compass.

This is the part number:
Part # 922.181

It should also be possible to order it from a source inside Europe or EU

 

[zebra50]

Last time (in 2022) I asked for a quote for the full motor assembly for the Beyer M160 it was $159 with free shipping from Full Compass.

In the UK I was quoted £222 GBP inc vat and shipping for the same part last May! Thank you Brexit.