Cascade Fathead II ribbon microphone

The somewhat amusingly named Fathead II is a ribbon mic assembled in the USA by Cascade Microphones of "off shore components". Thus, the build quality and quality control are very good, better than what one might expect at the price. And the low price is one of the selling points of this mic, along with the aforementioned generally good quality; as well as decent sound.
The mic is sold singly or in pairs, and usually comes in a nice case, either wood or metal, with a very substantial shockmount; and in some iterations, a very "heavy duty" stereo bar, which is very useful for Blumlein positioning and that sort of thing. A couple of color options are offered. Materially, the Fathead II and its accessories are good value for the money.
Sonically, the mic certainly exhibits the instantly recognizable ribbon tone, with huge, warm lows, relatively clear mids, and very attenuated highs. My pair has only the stock transformer, and reportedly the upgraded one sounds somewhat clearer. There is a certain color to the Fathead's sound however that I imagine is wedded to the basic design and componentry of the mic, with either transformer. On some sources this can be a good thing, whilst on most others it can be less than ideal. This can best be heard by A/B'ing the mic with another model, for example a more expensive ribbon mic. Usually the mid frequency coloration of the better mic will be more pleasant, and far preferable, to that of the Fathead.
However, I have had good results using the Fatheads in a M-S array on jazz drums, and as a single overhead mic on "fiddle" (not violin), where it really, really took the edge off any potential stridency. But generally I have found that there are much better sounding ribbon mics available, albeit usually more expensive.
As a possible first foray into the warm, natural sound of ribbon mics, one could do a lot worse than the Fathead II. A low-ender, admittedly, but good value for the price.