Cheap lolly pop & ribbon mics.

Any body seen these cheap T Bone mics, look like orange lolly pops, im thinkin rip the guts out & put some glass in there, oh & theres a ribbon mic too for not a lot of doe, spose they must be crap, look interesting tho.

Gary O.

I won't write too much about them here as I have just written a review that's not yet published. But the mics aren't crap. They're well built, very sturdy. The electronics look nice, especially on the tube one, which is a steal for 248 Euro (multipattern!). The ribbon is very nice too; it has a smooth mellow sound (I bought that one).

Go to www.thomann.de, choose your language and search "tbone retro" for the condensers and "RB500" for the ribbon. Note that the short description of the tbone retro tube says cardiod only. But it's actually a nine position multipattern mic (as you can see from a look at the psu).

[quote author="buttachunk"]anyone know what capsules they're using ??? anyone have inside pics of the sct700 tube mic ??? for 169Euro looks like that's a steal !!! :shock:[/quote]

I own a SC700 and i can make some pictures, my camera is a crap but i will try... contact me if u are interested...

Neeeeeeeeeeeno

It sounds good to my ears...
I've recorded an entire italian hi-p-op project with this mic, and a Joemeek preamp.

There you'll find a 30sec sample:
www.studio21.ch/samples/Sample_1.mp3

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeno

Hi,

Here are the pictures I found on the 700.

http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~keeris/extra.htm

Greets

I want one of those! Is it at all possible to get them in the states?

i emailed a sales rep at www.thomann.de (uk section) he said they will ship to the usa.

Exellent! sorry didnt mean to diss these mics, personally I think they look great, its just that they are so inexpesive, at the price you cant really go wrong, cant expect C12 for that money, but if they can be modified with say a C12 head amp, could be even better.

Looks alot like the two of my nady tcm1050s. The capsule mount and the use of a tube socket is different. Does anyone know if this the same as the newer TCM1050 with the tube socket?

The following is about my two nady1050s

The Nady 1050 has a not so good transformer 11:1, costs good money to replace

some not so good caps, easy to change

9 patterns with to much voltage on the 3 micron capsule about 100VDC, BAD

not so good gain stage to a CF stock circuit. BAD

The heater voltage is close to ground this is not the best for a CF stage.

FWIW I installed a different known good circuit in my 1050s and relamed one transfomer and tried a good jensen 12:1, did not help alot

The capsule and the grill just don't work together well IMO and it seems you can't get good bass out of the stock 3 micron capsule. The capsule grill is the heart of a microphone.

I got 2 of them RB500 ribbon mics on the way..Looking forward to be hearing them together with my AEA R-84 Ribbons.

also in the same "cheep spirit" I have a Nady tube mic on the way...(got it for cheep on ebay)..Damm hard to get anything made for that kind of money..I mean.all I´m after is the body...and powersupply case..everything else I´m gonna put together myself.

kind regards

Peter

[quote author="Gus"]

9 patterns with to much voltage on the 3 micron capsule about 100VDC, BAD.[/quote]

I had two of these mics--"old" and "new" version. Both of them had 60VDC polarization voltage.

The capsule mount and the use of a tube socket is different. Does anyone know if this the same as the newer TCM1050 with the tube socket?

Click to expand...

yes, it is.

not so good gain stage to a CF stock circuit. BAD.

Click to expand...

This mic has particularly bad designed CF circuit, as it uses very high Z cathode resistor (270K!), so they would be able to use off-shelf 1:11 trafo (in CF????)

The capsule and the grill just don't work together well IMO and it seems you can't get good bass out of the stock 3 micron capsule. The capsule grill is the heart of a microphone.

Click to expand...

I had to completely rework the grill. The bass sucks. Change of capsule for 797 helps a lot. In fact, it becomes usable.

Hi Everyone,

I bought the Tbone RB500 the other day, that's the ribbon mic.
It kills my Oktava ML52.

The tbone needs about 10dB less gain and has a much better top end response. Also, the Oktava's mid range sounded totally boxy compared to the tbone.

So in the For 129 euros, you can't really go wrong - at least that's my strong opinion.

Cheers.


Michael

Mig what does the Tbone ribbon sound like against a condenser mic.

Cheers Gary O.

If any Lab members here in the US order one of these mics, please let us know how it works out. I'm interested in the ribbon mic, but I'm wary of overseas transactions.

"T-Bone" is a really dumb name for a microphone, but if it sounds good, I don't really care what it's called :wink:

If I'm not wrong, TBone are made by Feilo, and also SE.Electronics are made by this Chinese company too.

Tbone are just OEM Chinese mics, re-branded from mr. Thomann...
Finally i think that they're good mics for what you pay... but i also think that they can sound better with some mods...

Just an idea... maybe someone of us can try to deal with Feilo to get bodies and/or capsules at resonable prices ?!!!??!? :roll:

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeno

interested in the ribbon mics too..

I bit and ordered the ribbon. Let ya know how it goes =)

ju

[quote author="Neeno"]maybe someone of us can try to deal with Feilo to get bodies and/or capsules at resonable prices ?[/quote]

Waaaay ahead o' ya:

http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=2398

:wink:

Peace,
Al.

Fum,

What's it gonna cost ya, including shipping and VAT or whatever weird tariffs they add in Europe...?