Royer R122

[petimar]

Has anybody tried one of these? How do they compare with the R121 (Which is the best ribbon I've tried).

Thanks in advance,

Pete

 

[littledog]

I haven't tried it, Pete, but I too am a 121 owner. They are supposed to sound the same, except the 122 has a much hotter output thanks to the phantom power design.

If you want to talk to a bunch of folks with hands-on experience, try ProSound Web Rec, recording.org, Gearslutz, or rec.audio.pro - you'll get lots of opinions.

 

[Michael Jones]

So how do you guys like the R121?
What do you use it on mostly?
What pre do you use with it?

 

[petimar]

I record accoustic string band music. I've used the R121 with great results on fiddle, mandolin, some upright basses, and male vocals. I also have a Beyer M160 with the Stephen Sank dx77 ribbon, which is a good mic, but the R121 is much better. My advice for people looking for ribbons is hold out for the R121.

My mic pre is a John Hardy M1, although I want to get an Altec 1567a, which I heard is great for ribbons.

 

[Dave S.]

I use the Royer R122 to record trumpet and trombone and it is great!
Dave

 

[littledog]

I just used my R121 these last couple of days to record flute on an a CD of Argentinian folk-style music. The flute sound was remarkable with this mic.

The main thing with the R121 is that you need a preamp that will give you at least 50-60dB of really clean gain, which fortunately I have (without adding a lot of hiss and grunge). Or maybe one of those with the variable impedance features (which I don't have). The advantage of the R122 would be that it would work with a wider spectrum of preamps.