To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its M 160 ribbon microphone, beyerdynamic is releasing 200 limited edition M 160s with their original chrome-plated housing.
Since beyerdynamic introduced the M 160 ribbon mic in 1957, it has hardly changed the manufacturing process, according to beyerdynamic Managing Director Wolfgang Luckhardt.
The diaphragm is a strip of aluminum just 2 micrometers thick stretched between the poles of a magnet. The extremely low moving mass gives ribbon microphones a pulse behavior that enables pick up of fine sound nuances. With no electronic components except the transformer, there is minimal interference with the linear sound characteristics of a ribbon mic.
Development of the first ribbon microphones occurred in the late 1920s when Dr. Harry F. Olson at RCA began experimenting with ?eld coils and permanent magnets leading to the introduction of the RCA 44-A in 1931.
