BoRbon Pocket Ribbon Microphone

BoRbon pocket ribbon microphone is a light and compact mic with a warm, rich tone, strong output and excellent signal to noise performance.

Most classic British ribbon microphones from the 1960s employed shorter, narrower ribbons than their American counterparts. Our BoRbon microphone builds on this heritage and the advantages that a shorter ribbon can bring. These are incredibly light and easy to mount, either with a standard large spring clip or with one of our mount-a-mic adapters. And the short ribbon is less prone to handling noise than a longer ribbon, which means in most circumstances a suspension mount is not required.

The market today seems dominated by large format ribbon microhones inspired by the RCA 44BX, with ribbon dimensions of the order of 50mm x 5mm or thereabouts. Of course everyone loves the 44 big ribbon sound but there are other ways to design a ribbon with a great tone. Those huge microphones were designed at a point when the only way to get a strong magnetic field was to use very large magnets. Magnet technology has evolved to an astonishing degree over the past few decades and so the bulk is not required. Moreover a shorter, narrower ribbon allows magnets to be positioned closer together which gives a very strong field in a tiny package, which compensates for the smaller transducer pickup area.

We have a lot of experience servicing classic British microphones and many of these, have medium sized ribbons around 25mm x 2.5mm, give or take a little. These include most of the Reslosound mics, the Grampian GR1, Film Industries M8 and the Lustraphone VR63. Whilst these are less well known than the RCA microphones, these smaller models are very popular.

This has allowed us to build a microphone with the output level of 44, but at 5 percent of the weight and a fraction of the size. The BoRbon sounds astonishingly huge for its size, with a big proximity effect like a big vintage microphone.

For reference, they are a little warmer than our BM9s, with a touch less top end, but they sound very real and natural, like the sound you are hearing in the room.

The BoRbon comes supplied with a Mount-a-Mic adapter, soft case and universal joint.

An additional option of a Universal Joint for your microphone stand if needed.

Weight	0.13 kg
Dimensions	8.5 × 4.3 × 4.3 cm
Options	Red Tortoiseshell, Red Tortoiseshell + Universal Joint, Woody, Woody + Universal Joint, Gold Sparkle, Gold Sparkle + Universal Joint, Black, Black + Universal Joint