Designed and built by Mr. Rupert Neve and sE Electronics
A leap in technology... The world's first HF Ribbon mic
For
many decades Ribbon mics have been used by engineers for their
extremely natural sounding reproduction of source material. The nature
of their performance differs greatly from condenser mics, which by
comparison sound very 'up front' and lack the harmonic depth of a good
ribbon.
Even at the high end of the market, the customary
roll-off of almost all the top end frequencies has always been a major
drawback. The frustration with all ribbons is - depending on the model - little or no performance past
7-10KHz, which is why condenser mics dominate the recording market.
The traditional appeal of the condenser then has
been the assumption of consistent frequency response from 20Hz to
20KHz. The pay-off of course is that these mics require a certain
degree of circuit board magic to achieve this, since the taughtness of
the diaphragm - compared with relatively slack ribbon membranes - means
condensers tend to be more 'coloured' in their sound.
Traditionally engineers using ribbons, however
expensive, have had to accept their significant limitations or have had
to augment the recording with a condenser mic to capture the high
frequency absent from the ribbon output.
Such compromises have meant that ribbons have never been very widely accepted or used as a first choice for recording.
Not any more!
Rupert Neve's new custom circuit design now allows
high frequencies to be captured and output from the capsule for the
first time ever in pristine detail. Standard performance of the RNR1 is
an unprecedented 20Hz to 25KHz - three times the frequency range of
even the best available competitor ribbon mics on the market today!
More than this, Mr Neve's hand-wound custom input
and output transformers create huge amounts of headroom and effectively
lower the noise levels by using gain stages to amplify the signal. The
slight dip in the frequency response from 16-25KHz in the RNR1 can
therefore be effectively flattened if required, producing an almost
perfectly flat response, way beyond what human ears can perceive. This
is crucial in making the RNR1 by far the best performing ribbon mic in
the world today.
The RNR1's faithful reproduction of fine harmonic
material across the frequency spectrum results in the unparalleled
capturing of real sound. Indeed its ability to capture modulation from
infinite harmonic frequencies normally masked on any recording assures
its revolutionary status and exemplary reputation.
The future...
Following hot on the heels of the sE Rupert Neve
Signature Series Active Ribbon RNR1 will be a large diaphragm tube mic,
and a solid-state condenser.
The mics look beautiful, the packaging is second to
none, and their performance will set new standards in the high-end
microphone market.
Design comments
Rupert Neve
Recent developments in the way that humans
perceive sound are demanding significant advances both in performance
and the philosophy of audio processing. That which was "good enough"
for light-hearted amusement fails to satisfy the thoughtful listener - in fact deficient sound quality has been shown to result in
frustration, even anger. The experienced listener is aware of
incredibly small sound pressure levels that in many cases are beyond
the conventional range of hearing.'
'I have worked for some time on the designs for a
new range of microphones - the concepts of which are actually already
being implemented in our own Rupert Neve Designs 5088 Console - namely
utilizing Discrete Single-Sided Circuits and my custom designed
transformers.'
'This new approach to analogue sound processing
needs extreme care in its manufacture, as well as meticulous alignment
of the embedded discrete op-amps and the delicate microphone elements.
The association with Siwei Zou and sE will provide an ideal partnership
in terms of their masterly and enthusiastic commitment to innovation
and quality that have also been my own hallmarks for more than 50
years.'
Siwei Zou
have, for many years, admired the work of Mr.
Neve, and now that we have a chance to work together I am able to
realise a quality level in microphone technology that no other
manufacturer has managed to achieve. The excellence we have worked so
hard to achieve in production, design and capsule technology at sE,
coupled with the best transformers this product area has ever seen,
plus new cutting edge circuit board design - which surpass anything I
have ever heard before - means we are now able to produce high end
mics, at a fraction of the cost of some other high end brand models,
but which have a sound and performance quality the likes of which this
market has never seen before. This is a truly exciting time for sE and
me personally.'
800-834-5986
