Ribbon Microphone-HUGE bang for you buck

The Cascade Fat Head II ribbon mic

No, it's not just the name.

This is one of those amazing values that happens only very rarely --a pro-level mic for $199. --and a world-class version with Lundahl 2192 Transformers for $349.

OK, no, I don't know what a Lundahl transformer is either. But read that PDF. Surf the Web. Holy Cow.

So I'm like all: A ribbon mic for $199 ???
Decimal's in the wrong place there, Jack.

I thought that the very low price could be due to one of two things:

1. The guy running the company is one of those entepreneur/engineers who has got tons of integrity, like FMR's Mark McQuilkin, and just can't bear to charge THAT much more than the components cost him--he'd rather make the mic available than make it "exclusively priced."

or

2. Some shark found a bunch of ribbon mic parts that fell off a truck, and he's thrown something together to fool us.

Well, I got hold of a $199 version and did some tests against an Earthworks(R) reference mic and a Blue(R) ribbon mic. Both MUCH pricier. Wow. Looks like it's the former, not the latter.

I placed an order, the price came out a little bit off, and Micael [the McQuilkin-Like engineer/owner as imagined] called me personally to set the numbers straight and to apologize. Instantly it was clear that this guy was cool--he got truly geeked out talking about how tight the cycle is between production and testing. He was dying to hear my A/B test recordings. He got all excited about how much better the Lundahl transformers sound. And we talked about the active electronics that some mics use in order to get gain up, and to hype the high end so that the thing sounds like you _think_ a ribbon mic should sound. Which totally matched my test observations.

Well, I figger if I'm getting $1500 worth of mic from this guy for $199, then for $349 I'm likely getting over 3 grand's worth. So I even went for the cute double set with shock mounts, a case, and the fancy stereo mic bracket, (the likes of which can go for $300 by itself) for $675. I couldn't be happier.

Oh, and here's a big secret: He advised me to get the BLACK ONES. I pass that inside scoop on to you, too. Get the BLACK ONES. They were introduced later, and my suspicion is that some little engineering tweak happened in the interim. So, pssssst! Get the BLACK ONES. I can say no more.

I'm not going to bother you with my A/B tests, there are plenty on the website.

Lets just put it this way--a month later I "became a man" and got my first Neumann U-87 for $3,649.00. Yeah, it's awesome for a lot of stuff, and it's my new vocal preference. BUT

First thing I recorded on it? Trumpet. The Fat Head was still set up, too.

As we would expect of a fine ribbon mic, The Fat Head KICKED ITS ASS!