SE Electronics RNR1

For many decades, sound engineers have chosen ribbon microphones because of their extremely natural rendering of the sound characteristics of the source, especially when compared with conventional condenser microphones that sound much more in-your-face and with less harmonic depth.

However, even at the highest end of the market, the typical roll-off of almost all high frequencies has always been a frustrating problem: the partial or total attenuation (depending on the type of ribbon microphone) of anything above 7-10Khz has thrown the doors wide open for condenser microphones to dominate the recording market.

The supposedly constant frequency response from 20Hz to 20KHz has always been the main attraction of condensers. There is a trade-off, however: to achieve this kind of response, condenser microphones need a certain degree of circuit-level magic since the diaphragm, which is stiffer than the ribbon microphone diaphragm, tends to have a more colorful sound.

Until now, sound engineers who have chosen to use ribbon microphones (of any price) have had to accept their major limitations, or have been forced to combine them with a condenser microphone to compensate for the lack of high frequencies.

It is because of this compromise that ribbon microphones have never been thoroughly used or considered as a first choice in recording...at least until now...

Rupert Neve's new specially designed circuitry allows a ribbon microphone capsule to capture and transmit high frequencies absolutely transparently for the first time. The RNR1 boasts the record for frequency response from 20Hz to 25KHz, which is three times the range of the best ribbon microphone on the market!

What's more, Rupert Neve's signature hand-wound input and output transformers ensure extremely high headroom, and the use of different gain stages significantly decreases the noise level. Therefore, in the RNR1 it was possible to compensate for the slight drop in frequency response between 16 and 25KHz to achieve virtually constant performance over a frequency band that is far beyond the average human being's perceptual capabilities. Thanks to this kind of performance today, the RNR1 is by far the best ribbon microphone in the world.

The RNR1's faithful response to the smallest harmonic nuances along the entire spectrum results in a naturalness of audio pickup never seen before. Its revolutionary ability to capture even the infinitesimal nuances of those frequencies that would be masked in any normal recording is destined to make it a benchmark in the industry.