Beyerdynamic M160 Ribbon Mic Review / Test (Compared to SM7b & AEA KU5a) 

Some additional information about the M160 if you want to see what it actually looks like with the grill taken off, and some info on the history of it. So cool seeing this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S_ypWT7nPpY.html

One of the most thorough and actually useful mic reviews I've ever seen/heard! Tested every angle and distance. Bravo!

This has got to be the best electric guitar sound of all the mics you've tested. It sounds amazing!

I think this is some of my favorite guitar playing you’Ve ever done in a review. Sounded great!

The sound of this mic is so beautiful. It's great on your voice, it's sound amazing when the three guitars are mixed together and that is one of the best sounding acoustic recording I've ever heard.

Hoping for a review of the AEA KU5a in the near future!

Ever since I started using this mic on guitar cabs as a live touring engineer, I haven't looked back. Pairing it with a dynamic and blending them together creates an unbelievably satisfying guitar tone in a live setting that just sounds like a studio sound. It's probably my favorite mic right now.

I like your unbiased reviews of mics. It has saved me a lot of money!

I was thinking exactly the same thing about the acoustic. The softer playing is reproduced so delicately but it isn’t thin. A really great sound. 👍

Just a few tips for ribbon lovers: Never ever blow into it. Don't put it on a kick drum, especially at the hole. The tone will slowly change over the years due to ribbon fatigue, and there's nothing you can do about it short of a new ribbon. Always position a Beyer ribbon with the red dot either up or down, but not sideways, to help keep the ribbon centered in the magnet -- and store it that way too. Don't clap your hands near the ribbon! ;-) And finally, as a friend of mine found out the hard way, you can use it to record a firecracker *exactly once.* Great review, Bandrew! And thanks!

love the review as always! I'd love to see your take on some other ribbons, like the Golden Age R1.

Phantastic review about the Beyerdynamic M160! I also love the sound of the ribbons. When I was a child, I can remember my father doing all his audio recordings with a Grundig GBM125 (internal term M160!). Greetings from Germany :)

best review I have seen on any microphone. well done!

This mic sounds awesome

What an amazing sounding microphone. Thanks for the review.

M160. Super smooth on your voice. Great tone. As a recording engineer and re-rcording mixer, half my job would be done with this mic(for your voice). Impressively smooth.

this has been my 'secret weapon' mic for electric guitar cabs for years now, one of my favourite mics, I have used it for vocals with hardware EQ on the way in, it takes EQ very well.

This is amazing, I'm from Mexico, and your videos are so helpful, in our country we don't have some one that to the same as you.

The M160 sounded great with your voice, it added some lushness to it and worked really well. I purchased an M160 recently to record sax and woodwind it's been the best I've experienced for my particular sound and instruments, and it's taken a while for me to get one, it's especially awesome for flute. For your voice the AEA sounds awesome, really classy, wow!! and I'd say the best for you - its a bit more transparent than the Beyerdynamic but keeps the lushness - If the SM7b and the M160 got together and had a child the AEA would be it, the best of both worlds!! BUT if budget was an issue I'd go with the Beyer, it does sound awesome!! It's down to your personal taste and what sound you wanna present.

The M160 is such a great mic, and even though it's popular in recording studios it seems to still a bit of a secret treasure. I thought your voice sounded excellent with it, and it was definitely my favorite of all the ones you compared it to. It does sometimes require a bit of EQ, as you mentioned, but ribbon mics tend to respond to EQ in a very pleasing and predictable way, and the M160 is no exception. Excellent review, by the way! I really enjoy these, and I find them to be very helpful and informative

This was one of the most pleasant mics on your voice. I've been a ribbon convert for a long time. The AEA seems much better for vocals with very pleasant highs. Thanks.

Oh, I see your guitar playing is improving, thats awesome 🤘keep rocking 🤘

Picked one up a year ago. Used it as a mono overhead on drums recently. Great mic.

Dam, this mic sounds very nice. Very smooth but still catching all the nuances, so balanced! I’ll definitely think about buying one.

Thanks for these interesting and informative videos. I would love to see a review and comparison with the Rode NTR.

This m160 is the Best mic for your voice for sure! 👌Damn! I had already decide after your ksm32 review that the shure was my next all purpose mic. But now you put this video and this is the new winner I think...🤔😅

I love the sound of this microphone. It has really transformed your voice.

Good job! The mic M 160 is excellent. I use it for my instrument, Persian hammer dulcimer. It works quite well. Moreover, I believe the main purpose of this mic is not to be used for podcast but for musical instruments.

I just used one of this guys yesterday, what a beautiful piece of equipment .

Most thorough reviews on RU-vid! Have you reviewed budget ribbons?

Love how this mic sounds, the difference in detail and "warmth" when you went to the Beyerdynamic dynamic mic was night and day.

Had a couple of these back in the 70’s. They were great for live vocal performances with floor monitors because of the tight pattern. They also came with globe shaped pop filters.

As a multi-instrumentalist, I got one of the BEST tenor sax cuts ever on the M160. The track had a polished, smooth, almost compressed & polished sound. I bought another!

Hi Bandrew, I like the M160 best the sound is amazing. I don't think I heard a ribbon mic before, if I did I didn't know it. Thank you for opening my ears, stay safe and keep well...

Saw your comment on Audient EVO 4 on Krauss`s channel- Came over - Funny dood! Good and goof tests and you can actually play. Enjoyed...Looks like I got a few videos to get through here lol.....Be lucky - Subbed

Thanks for your work...it is greatly appreciated

Getting one of these this week. Cant wait try it on drum OHs and guitar amp.

Thank you for the fantastic review

Understatement of the year by Bandrew: "I may be a weirdo".😂 Nice mic & great review....👍👍😉😉🎤🎤🎤🎤👍👍

I can confirm your voice vibrated the heck out of my sub!

Sounds amazing. Looking forward to also putting this on Guitar cabs and curious about it's ability to mic a high hat.

wonderful sounding mic P:) I love it!

Ribbon microphone when you blow into it with no pop filter: 👁️👄👁️

Sounds great on voice, guitar, drums...it's probably cool on strings and horns too. Legend

Could you do a test of the M160 and an M130 for Mid/sides? Also I would love to see any reviews of Grace and TRP pre-amps with any passive ribbon mics.

Damn this mic sounds great. I was excited when I saw ribbon mic in the thumbnail since I really want to get one, but that price haha. I still prefer the KU5a. Might save my pennies up for that one still.

The M160 sounds great! But, the AEA KU5a is absolutely awesome on your voice! My favorite of all the mics you have used even though you haven't reviewed it on Podcastage. I loved the 3 episodes of BSP using the AEA KU5a.

Love the 160! Its the secret weapon to jimi and zepplin's guitars, bonham's drums, and adding texture to bowies voice (berlin era). Needs a cloudlifter though!

Ah, the video I waited for. Sweet. I'm not bothered by the increased low end at all. It would ass more - dare I say it - balls to sources that might need it. The top end is actually really great in this, like you mentioned. In that regard, SE makes a ribbon in conjunction with Rupert Neve that boasts response up to 25k, which I'm super interested in trying, should the stars ever align for anything that isn't a worldwide tragedy. Although, it's currently hurricane season here in Florida, so we probably need to get that out of the way first. But still, if it's too much, EQ it out. If it's not there in the first place, and you need it...uh...504: Frequency Range Not Found. You sound great on this, and I think it's honestly becoming of your voice. I'm a bit worried about the issue of damaging the thing, with you being so close to it. Granted, my own mic usage is typically 2-6 feet away, depending on what's happening, but I still hide my ribbon from even my own prying hands when it's not in use. Shit happens, though, and I've dropped plenty things I never meant to. The last thing I need, is to have 3 car payments explode on the sidewalk when I have sweaty hands. There are a couple ribbons out there which are meant for more rough usage, like the "live" versions of Royer mics they designed after Aerosmith used the normal 121 and 122 models on a bunch of tours (and supposedly only broke one, but I call bullshit), but I haven't met anyone with them to confirm what kind of abuse a guitar amp does to them, and it's uncommon for me to hear somebody used a Royer on vocals, where it'd be executed in public square within the first 3 songs. Like I've said before though, I enjoyed using one of these myself. My experience has been toward the larger end of the distance scale from the mic with them, but I'd be curious of how it might sound when I'm not consistently blasting out 130dB of noise toward a $700 mic that looks like something I plugged into a boombox as a kid to record myself saying dirty words. If you ever decide you hate the mic, though, you could always do a Mythbusters-style test on exactly what it takes to blow it out. Mind you, we'll all be disappointed if you use anything less than ballistics gel and a 50 caliber machine gun in the experiment. A small shout-out to the mention of using a Fethead or Cloudlifter, for anyone interested, too: the Fethead seriously helped with gain on the ribbon I use, and I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. Short of that, if there's an active version of a ribbon someone's eyeballing, it also solves the issue. If it come down to cost, just gauge whether it's cheaper to buy the Fethead plus the passive ribbon, or buying the active version of the ribbon without the Fethead outright. Bear in mind, the Fethead also works great on dynamic mics, and for me, it makes a world of difference.

This ribbon... with acoustic sound. Is mindblowing. Did not even know that it picked up those beautiful backpanel vibrarions so smoothly.

The proximity effect is great on my M130 I love it

The mic sounds great and you're a good guitarist too xD

It sounds VERY nice with the guitar amp. I really liked it.

I'm just here to watch the box die Also, I think this may be the only channel on RU-vid where the automatic captions actually reflect what is being said over 90% of the time, so kudos for the clarity and enunciation

Years ago I used a M160 in the studio. To this day it is the best mic I've used as a vocalist. And this includes a host of high end classic mics.

This mic sounds great.

I love how you throw those boxes

What video recording device do you use? Do you use any special lighting? I like the video quality as much as the M160. Thanks for posting this. I really enjoyed it.

Great video bro!

Great job man.

Bandrew, that is a spectacular mic. I want to change up my podcast sound from traditional dynamics (Shure Sm7b, RE20--which I love.) My main concern is the pattern in an untreated room. Now, I run through the Rodecaster Pro so it has decent pre amps and there's a good gate and compression setting that helps, but do you think I'm gonna get killed in an untreated room with this? My dynamics do great in the room, as a comparison. Wondering if I should just wait until I'm in my cups one night and spring for the KU5a.

Best sound so far for spoken word. Wow!

I wanna see how this thing is built, it's radically different from any ribbon mic I've seen before. Do moar ribbon mics they're cool!

I use the M160 for quite some time. It´s a great mic although it needs some attention. Never in front of impulsive instruments, always handle with care. It´s a fragile mic but it rewards you with a very unique, nice sound. I mainly use it for classical instruments, sometimes for acoustic guitars. Even for grand pianos it´s a outstanding mic.

All the microphones sound great for spoken word, I was very impressed the M201 TG. Have you any updates on the Samson Q9U? It seems to have disappeared.

Dude do you actually own all these mic's you review? You are crazy. Btw have you done a full review on the Mojave 201fet? I saw it in your U87 video but I didn't find a full review would really interested in that if you got the time! Thanks for the content as always it's awesome

Sounds great for classical music recordings and choruses.

New subscriber! Thank you for the review. Would you recommend this for recording a yidaki, or didgeridoo? I've heard high end ribbon mics are best but also a huge group of didge players say DCM mics. The confusion is real.

Love the song and the guitar nice rythim to the guitar

That's the best song everrrrrrrr so far i've ever heard about mic, better than others mic review video. You love ribbon... You hate stickers... And.. I love you man, cheers 🤘

This mic sounds amazing.

I should never watch microphone reviews at 2 a.m. when I have cash in the bank. I want all of the microphones! All of them!

A review of the Coles 4104 classic ribbon war-zone reporter's microphone would be good. Booth Junkie did a great field test in a very noisy environment, but there's a lack of more comprehensive studio reviews!

What sort of a preamp would you suggest for the mic for doing voice work in home conditions? I really love the sound of the ribbons - both M160 and KU5A are outstanding. I'm just wondering what to pair them with for the best results.

This mic is phenomenal as an overhead on drums.

I recently tested the Beyerdynamic MM1 for voice over and I think the results are very interesting. Maybe you could review it ?

M201TG sounded so clear, technical etc when switching from the M160. Probably sounds great on it’s own but the jump in sound profile was very sudden and confusing. I think I slightly preferred the KU5A, which makes me a bit happy as I’m supposed to receive one in the mail today. But the M160 would make many people happy, if I had known about it I might have considered it as the KU5A price is a bit high in my opinion. The KU5A looks awesome. Maybe I am silly, but the visual design is important to me. I really appreciate mics like KU5A and Super55 etc where the mic visual add something to the room it’s in. Had been thinking on the Heil Finn for similar reason, bling that makes you happy :)

That M160 sounds really great but it seems too fragile. I wonder if @bandrew would prefer this or the Sennheiser MD441-U dynamic mic instead? Also, what shock filters would work with this mic?

Ohhhhh :) I was waiting this mic since a looong time !!!!!! Next legendary mic : Sennheiser MD21 (dynamic omni) ;) - And i prefer your voice on this mic (with maybe a light HPF)

A lot of M160s are gonna be sold because of this video; lord knows I'm looking to buy one now!

Hello please this mickey needs phantom ? I have read that the last ones on sale already have electronics inside that need phantom.

Very surprised about how great the top end sounds and how balanced overall a ribbon is esp at this price. Is this the best double ribbon for warmth, smoothness and best top end articulation (not the typical big roll off you mentioned) around this price in your (anyone else’s) opinion?

Most of the cons you mentioned about the M160 are easily resolved with placement. Move the mic a little further from the source (it will still sound up close due to excellent transient response) or to a location for the acoustic that’s less rich in bass. Massive proximity effect is a feature of most ribbon mics. The exceptions that lack said proximity effect are mainly modern ribbons like the AEA N22 and KU5A. That’s a benefit in close micing but a limitation if you want to use said massive bass.

Would you please make a comparison between "Shure Sm58" & "Stagg SDM50" 😉

Gotta love the XLR cables jus hanging from the door

hey Bandrew i have a question..when we record vocals, we eventually cut off the lower frequencies while mixing the vocals with the tracks..so considering that, is it better to turn on the high pass filter of the mic while recording in the first place or is it better to record with the pad off and do everything in eq? big fan of your work

I believe the M160 was used on Jimi Hendrix's guitar cab back in The olden days. Also just noticed the Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers masks in the background. Nice!

Mmmm, sounds nice. Its a toss up between the Beyer and the AEA for my ears and your voice.

I am a classical violinist, and am looking to improve my home recording set up. I don't plan to use it for comercial recording, more for my own practising. What would I need to make this mic work? Would scarlet interface be enough, or would I need to invest in a more robust pre-amp?

I love this channel so much I've just subscribed also with my second account. I really liked the M160, at the moment my only ribbon is a Cascade Fathead and I'm deciding if getting an M160 or save for a Coles. The M160 (also the M130) is one the "legendary" Beyer mics, used extensively back in the day by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix etc ect

Great review! I need to boost the gain a lot on my preamp with the M160. Would it be beneficial to use a cloudlifter with this mic?

That AEA is sweet.

Sounds better than SM7B to me, fuller and more pleasant. Excellent video, as always! 🙂

So both the Beyerdynamic and AEA a fairly similar in tone. Do you have a preference between them on vocals?

That mic does sound so good.. Kinda shocked how small it was for a ribbon..

Your reviews are so helpful. Do you think you could do a review of the Yamaha MG10XU mixer? Thank you!

You went from Cherry blues to Gaterons? Do you notice anything different between the two? Many people in the community prefer Gateron or Kailh over Cherry.

THIS IS THE MIC I WAS SEARCHING

Awesome Mic!

what accoustic guitar do you use? love the tone of it