Beyer M260: Experience? Clips? Comments?

Nope, the Beyer 260 is a hypercardioid pattern , not a figure 8. Great sounding mic, but Stephen Sank in Albuqueque has an RCA 77DX ribbon modification for $125 that will make the 260 magical.

He replaces the 2 micron thick, stock ribbon with a 0.7 micron ribbon (used in the RCA 77DX), and it open up the sound incredibly.
 
Thanks Harvey! Stephen is doing the mod on mine. I have not had the mic at all. Mr. Sank will be sending it when he's finished.

Harvey when I used your Sank-modded Beyer on Ina's vocals last year I learned they need a lot of clean gain. I also learned they sound great on her voice and I had to have one. Will it be good for guitars like I hear people rave about the Royers? Or are they too wind-sensitive? Sounds like too tight a pattern to be suitable for a single drum overhead. Other good apps?
 
All ribbon mics are wind sensitive to some degree. It'll work fine on guitars but don't put it as close to the speaker as you do a dynamic - a couple of feet out seems to work best.
 
How much are these M 260 ribbons anyway? This is one category of microphones I am fascinated by. Is it cheaper to get the Beyer M 260 [and have Steve Sank do the RCA mod] or should I just score a Royer 121?:cool:
 
PinkStrat, and anyone else who's interested:
Contact Stephen Sank via stephensank.com The phone #'s on there as well as an email link I believe.

A friend of his is scouring Germany for mics and bringing Beyer M260's to Stephen for mods. Prices vary, but I saw a decent one and bidded $225 and the friend took it. Stephen's mod is $125. So I'm getting a nice hypercardioid ribbon mic for $350. Stephen said to tell anyone who's interested there are more for sale. Tell him Kent from Dallas sent you.


I can't comment on the Royer, cause I haven't used one, but I bet they're figure 8's, and the Beyer M260, as Harvey pointed out, is hypercardioid.
-kent
 
The Royer is figure 8. Sounds fantastic on about everything.

I don't know that much about the M260.

Generally I can say that you should be careful if you buy used ribbon mics. They are very fragile and they tend to get "tired". So listen carefully.

A good ribbon mic is... ...a good ribbon mic (makes sense, doesn't it?)

fim
 
Thanks for your concern, fim! Not to worry though. The man brokering the deal, Stephen Sank, has a stellar reputation and is an expert on ribbon mics. His shop is famous for restoring vintage RCA ribbon mics (which his father helped design originally, I understand), as well as performing the "Sank mod" in which he upgrades the Beyer M260 among others. I used one of these Beyers belonging to Harvey Gerst of Indian Trail and message board fame, and fell in love. Had to have one.

I talked to Stephen today and the mod is done. He's Fed-exing it tomorrow, so I should get it shortly. If anyone's interested, I could try posting some clips, though it's not my forte'.
-kent
 
Bump.
I just ordered one...cheapest I could find one is at Front End w/ free 15' mogami cable for $389. I'm excited - I owned a stereo ribbon for a short while that I didn't like too much, so I'm hoping this'll find a place in my mic collection.

Does anyone have some links to clips using the 260? I'd like to hear it on guitar amps in particular.
 
Be aware that the current model M260 has built in roll off. It used to be known as the M260.80. It has a fixed high-pass filter at 80Hz, implemented within the mic’s output transformer. This filter is not switchable. It is designed to reduce the natural proximity effect of the ribbon transducer to improve its utility for close-miking applications. A very good mic, but not exactly the same as older M260s that aren't rolled off.
 
I was aware of the roll off on the new ones, I've been reading up on this mic as much as I could find, but never heard complaints about that...

Are the newer ones considered to be inferior sounding to the old ones? :confused:
 
choutmusic said:
I was aware of the roll off on the new ones, I've been reading up on this mic as much as I could find, but never heard complaints about that...

Are the newer ones considered to be inferior sounding to the old ones? :confused:
Click to expand...

No, but they are different. Some people like roll off and others don't. Depends on how you plan to use it as well. The new mic is geared more for close micing, which is what most of us home studio types do most often. If you were hoping to match it with an older M260, of course you would have issues. I have 2 older M260s, and they are different as well. I prefer the older of the two (gray straight barrel, tuchel connector) to the more recent one (black tapered barrel, xlr connector). The older one has more output and sounds smoother - although it may be the case that my more recent one needs some work. I use it as a cab mic (but back from the amp) together with a dynamic mic (on the grill). It works OK as a vocal mic as well, but I generally like the M500 better for that.
 
cool, I'm not worried...I mainly bought it for micing guitar, but have just heard how they work well for overheads, so I'll probably have to get a second for a different overhead flavor than my Oktavas.

So these new ones have a tapered barrel? I haven't seen any pics of any like that...
 
I was referring to the two versions of the older M260. One (the oldest) has a straight barrel, and the more recent one has a tapered barrel. Both are discontinued. See attached pics. My more recent M260 does not have a switch, however, which is just as well. These are pics off the web, although my older M260 looks just like the mic on the left. I was too lazy to go get a camera out.
 

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