the t.bone RM 700

Bought this as my first ribbon mic, I had used Cascade Fatheads before so am familiar with what this type of ribbon mic can potentially be. Don't expect high frequencies from this thing, the design dictates that frequency response rolls off from just under 10kHz.

It is a very simple mic, I've had very good results using it on arco double bass where the smoothness really shines, and close in on a guitar cab which gave a lovely creamy sound.

You need a good preamp to drive it with a lot of clean gain, even then there is a fair bit of noise, I think this could be remedied by swapping the transformer for a better, shielded version. You can also mod these quite easily (I removed the inner screens) and there are quite a few places out there that will upgrade the ribbon and transformer for a reasonable fee (check out Xaudia for example).

Given the price, it's good value, you get a nice flight case and wooden box, the provided shock mount feels a little flimsy but does the job.