R44CE Bidirectional Big Ribbon Studio Microphone. RCA 44 ribbon microphones have remained an essential part of studio life well after RCA stopped manufacturing them in 1955. The sound and response of the 44 B/BX were unlike anything else available, and was cherished for its smoothness, forgiving nature and unique tonal balance. As collectors began to buy up the supply of RCA 44's through the 90's, the availability of this wonderful ribbon mic to the studio was greatly endangered. Wes Dooley, a specialist in ribbon mics of all kinds, recently began a project to restore availability of the RCA 44 to its rightful position in the studio. After tracking down the folks who built and designed the original RCA 44, Wes' company, Audio Engineering Associates, acquired the ribbon material, made the tooling and custom machined the parts necessary to build the original RCA 44 B/BX design as it was in the 1930s. After years of painstaking work, AEA has again begun production of the most important ribbon mic of all time: the AEA R44C. How is the R44 different from other ribbon microphones? The 44 was RCA's best microphone from the 1930s into the '50s. Is AEA's R44 that good? Both listeners and measurements say that the R44 is better. Why would that be? Using original ribbon material with modern high-strength magnets helps. Com- bining the original American undamped ribbon design with British RCA 44 innovations that lower the weight and hum sensitivity contributes to further improvement. Listening to comments from both users and ex-RCA engineers for over 20 years has also had a lot to do with how good AEA's R44 has become. The R44 design runs contrary to all current ribbon microphone manufacturing. It is large and heavy when other microphones are smaller and lighter. The internal ribbon element is by far the longest and its resonance tuning the lowest of today's rib- bon microphones. It is a pure undamped ribbon design, an approach that has been out of production for over 50 yea...
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