i need a beyer 160 repaired.

gregovertone · Post by **gregovertone** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:49 pm

i just got a beyer m160 for $1.00.

it doesn't work.
i guess the guitar center employee decided to run it with phantom power.

awesome.

i figured i'd roll the dice on the $1.

anyone have any good places to get it re-ribboned?

newfuturevintage · Post by **newfuturevintage** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:51 pm

very likely it was not phantom power that killed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHgPbSqhAE

As for fixing it, I've used Stephen Sank with good results. He charges ~$150 to re-ribbon mics.

In your shoes, I'd open it up and make sure a) the ribbon's blown, and b) that the transformer is present / no broken wires. $1 is a serious effin' score.

gregovertone · Post by **gregovertone** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:07 pm

newfuturevintage wrote:very likely it was not phantom power that killed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHgPbSqhAE

As for fixing it, I've used Stephen Sank with good results. He charges ~$150 to re-ribbon mics.

In your shoes, I'd open it up and make sure a) the ribbon's blown, and b) that the transformer is present / no broken wires. $1 is a serious effin' score.

i've seen that. i was just going on what the guy at GC told me.

i'll look up mr sank now.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:49 pm

i think beyer will fix them, no?

rhythm ranch · Post by **rhythm ranch** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:30 pm

gregovertone wrote:i'll look up mr sank now.

You might try contacting him through the eBay seller "proaudioheaven"

He's down in Tucson now and selling his modded mics and rack gear through them.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:59 am

gregovertone wrote:i guess the guitar center employee decided to run it with phantom power.

Just today (well, yesterday now, I guess), I accidentally hit the phantom power switch on a Telefunken V72 with a Royer 121 plugged into it. I switched it back off and the mic still worked fine. Sending phantom power to an appropriately-wired mic doesn't do any immediate damage to the ribbon.

I do, however, have two broken Beyer M160s (that were not subjected to phantom power) and I recently sent them to Clarence Kane at ENAK. I should be getting them back any time now. He's done wonderful repair work on some RCA ribbon mics for me in the past and he's extremely reliable, so I'm sure he'll do a great job on these Beyers. I'll give a full report when I get the mics back.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

ulriggribbons · Post by **ulriggribbons** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:26 am

Although you can put a traditional ribbon in these microphones (this is in no way to take away from the fine work that Clarence Kane does), the ribbon installed in these microphones is not traditional, meaning it can't be made the way that Beyer makes them (with both vertical and horizontal corrugations).

For that reason I normally recommend sending them to beyer usa.

Chris, I'd be interested in hearing your opinions on the mics when they come back.

Regards

Jon

tonewoods · Post by **tonewoods** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:59 pm

ShinyBox wrote: For that reason I normally recommend sending them to beyer usa.

Beyer was charging like 250.00 ten years ago to re-ribbon a mic...
I'm kinda curious as to what's it gonna cost these days??

I have a couple stock 160s and a Sank-modded 160, and I like the Sank-modded mic just fine....
Doesn't sound like the stock Beyers though...

newfuturevintage · Post by **newfuturevintage** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:09 pm

tonewoods wrote:
ShinyBox wrote: For that reason I normally recommend sending them to beyer usa.

Beyer was charging like 250.00 ten years ago to re-ribbon a mic...
I'm kinda curious as to what's it gonna cost these days??

I have a couple stock 160s and a Sank-modded 160, and I like the Sank-modded mic just fine....
Doesn't sound like the stock Beyers though...

I originally went with sank because of the high beyer repair rates.

I've got a pair of m500s one stock, one with a Sank ribbon, and the sank one sounds a lot better to my ear: less harsh on the highs, about the same output level, just kind of 'mellower'. He also replaced the foam on the ball with a silk, which may have had something to do with it.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:23 pm

ShinyBox wrote:Chris, I'd be interested in hearing your opinions on the mics when they come back.

Thanks for the info, John. I was curious about that, but after two emails to Beyer's service department with no response, I just decided to give Clarence more of my money. I got several recommendations from people who've been sending him their Beyer mics over the years and when I asked him about it, it seemed like a perfectly normal thing for him to do. I'll let you know what happens.

For whatever it's worth, I avoid Sank like the plague. He seems to have his act together now, but a few years ago, he through a period of horrible, basically criminally negligent business practices and I refuse to deal with someone who's treated their clients the way he did. Looks around and you may find some older posts on a few other forums detailing people's personally accounts.

Clarence has been nothing but pleasant and competent for me for several years.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

aurelialuz · Post by **aurelialuz** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:37 pm

i was one of the people that used sank during that "criminal" era. my experience with him completely and totally reflects that personification. therefore, the two mics i had him do need to go somewhere else, and i'm looking at ENAK. you guys mentioned that the 160 has a corrugated ribbon that only beyer can do; is this also true for the 260? how about a BM5?

gregovertone · Post by **gregovertone** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:25 pm

allllrighty......
just some random updates......

sank - $210 to mod it to the rca 77 specs.

beyer - $240 for a re-ribbon

proaudio - $275 for the rca spec

AEA recommends beyer

Mr. Joly recommended mr Kane.

thought you guys may like to know.

ulriggribbons · Post by **ulriggribbons** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:12 pm

The 260 is similar to the 160 in the way the ribbon is made, it's just that there is only one ribbon, whereas the 160 has two ribbons sandwiched on top of each other (with a slight spacer).

The deal with the original ribbon is that it's corrugated vertically along it's center, and horizonatally at each end.

Traditional ribbons are corrugated horizontally.

I've reribboned both the 260 and 160 in the past, and was happy with the results. I just wouldn't do it and say it sounds like the originals (better or worse is always subjective, so I guess that I should say that the ones I reribbon will bitch slap a stock 160 or 260 any day of the week( for the sarcasm impaired, please don your sarcasm goggles)

My understanding the last time I spoke with beyer is that they don't reribbon the mic, they completely replace the internals, including transformer. This may have changed, but last I spoke with them was a couple years back. You can probably confirm this with beyer, but for a couple hundred your getting a new mic in your existing body.

The M500 is no longer serviced by beyer, to my knowledge, so third party re-ribboning seems fair game.

Man, I need to charge more to reribbon mics

Regards

Jon

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:45 pm

ShinyBox wrote:The M500 is no longer serviced by beyer, to my knowledge, so third party re-ribboning seems fair game.

Really? That's surprising.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

aurelialuz · Post by **aurelialuz** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:45 pm

gregovertone wrote:thought you guys may like to know.

thanks, most helpful.

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