cheap diy pre for ribbon mics?

paulneedles · 1st August 2006, 07:04 AM

i've got one of those t-bone ribbon mics, which i quite like, but it's too noisy on quiet stuff and i've heard that it benefits from a 'good' preamp more than most mics. I can't afford any of the 'good' readymade pres so i'm turning to you guys for help. i'm plugging it into my allen&heath mixwizard, which is the cleanest pre i have - i've also got a bellari mp105 tube pre and a ted fletcher era joemeek mq3. is there a preamp i can build with 70dB or so of super-clean gain that'll sound significantly better than my other pres? My budget can't stretch much further than £100 or so($200USD roughly). Or is there an easier route that i haven't noticed?

living sounds · 1st August 2006, 10:05 AM

As far as Preamps are concerned, there is an excellent (meaning truly top notch) choice from JLM Audio well within your budget, the Baby Animal Pre. I just built one myself and really love it. It was also quite easy and a lot of fun to built, and support is outstanding. Email them for the best choice of transformer and opamp for ribbons, or just read through the forum threads, links are on their website:
http://www.jlmaudio.com/Baby_Animal_Mic_Pre.htm

BTW, you can improve almost every chinamic by changing a few components (or even a single one, in condensers it's the Capsule-to-FET cap). Not sure about ribbons, though.

gevermil · 1st August 2006, 04:51 PM

Yeah the Jlm stuff is easy and inexpensive , You can email joe or matt and find the better combos for ribbons Or crack your knuckles and do a search
at the LAB
http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2
look up the green preamp too , Super simple and lots of clean gain .
any of these projects will sund great .

paulneedles · 2nd August 2006, 04:29 AM

wow! this is exactly what i was after - thanks guys!

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1st August 2006, 07:04 AM	#1
paulneedles Gear nut Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 129	cheap diy pre for ribbon mics? i've got one of those t-bone ribbon mics, which i quite like, but it's too noisy on quiet stuff and i've heard that it benefits from a 'good' preamp more than most mics. I can't afford any of the 'good' readymade pres so i'm turning to you guys for help. i'm plugging it into my allen&heath mixwizard, which is the cleanest pre i have - i've also got a bellari mp105 tube pre and a ted fletcher era joemeek mq3. is there a preamp i can build with 70dB or so of super-clean gain that'll sound significantly better than my other pres? My budget can't stretch much further than £100 or so($200USD roughly). Or is there an easier route that i haven't noticed?

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1st August 2006, 10:05 AM	#2
living sounds Lives for gear Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Germany Posts: 521	As far as Preamps are concerned, there is an excellent (meaning truly top notch) choice from JLM Audio well within your budget, the Baby Animal Pre. I just built one myself and really love it. It was also quite easy and a lot of fun to built, and support is outstanding. Email them for the best choice of transformer and opamp for ribbons, or just read through the forum threads, links are on their website: http://www.jlmaudio.com/Baby_Animal_Mic_Pre.htm BTW, you can improve almost every chinamic by changing a few components (or even a single one, in condensers it's the Capsule-to-FET cap). Not sure about ribbons, though.

1st August 2006, 04:51 PM	#3
gevermil Gear addict Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: chicago Posts: 484	Yeah the Jlm stuff is easy and inexpensive , You can email joe or matt and find the better combos for ribbons Or crack your knuckles and do a search at the LAB http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2 look up the green preamp too , Super simple and lots of clean gain . any of these projects will sund great .

2nd August 2006, 04:29 AM	#4
paulneedles Gear nut Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 129	wow! this is exactly what i was after - thanks guys!