Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

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Dubmaniac
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Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by Dubmaniac » Sun Sep 19, 2021 11:54 am

I recently purchased an Electro-voice V2 ribbon microphone. It came with no cable and no warranty, but if it works, I may have made a huge score. Got a couple of questions about it. First, is there a good, low priced option for either a cable or adapter to go from its 3 pin screw-on connector (NOT XLR) to a male XLR connection? I'm trying to find something cheaper than $60 if possible. Second, it's marked as Hi-Z. Is there any way to convert it to Low-Z instead? Otherwise, its usefulness (even if it works) diminishes. Third, has anybody had any experience with these? I'm hoping it'll sound great on guitar amp or horns. And before you say it, I know, I know- DON'T PUT PHANTOM POWER ON IT! It's by far the heaviest microphone I've ever owned as well as the oldest. I'm hopeful that I can make it live again and it can contribute something unique to my efforts in my studio.
Last edited by Dubmaniac on Sat Oct 23, 2021 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by vvv » Sun Sep 19, 2021 8:43 pm

Some info here:
http://coutant.org/v1a/

The connector is an Amphenol; you can google for how to wire it:
https://service.shure.com/s/article/wir ... uage=en_US
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by winky dinglehoffer » Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:58 pm

Take a look at these. I don't know if you're looking for Male or Female, so I'm linking both.

https://www.alliedelec.com/product/eato ... rer=search

https://www.alliedelec.com/product/eato ... /70144711/
.
In some pics of V2s, it looks like this might be the right one (EV did use this style of connector quite a bit.) Also, the price on these is insane.

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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Sep 20, 2021 5:06 am

You're up against three issues with the V2. The connector is expensive to source and you'll either end up with a dedicated cable for the mic or a short adapter cable. Problem two is that you'll need to convert the signal from high z to low z for the mic to play nice with recording gear. The third issue is that you have no idea of the state of the ribbon itself.
If it were me I'd talk to Stewart at Xaudia. He builds the Extinct Audio ribbons and does a lot of ribbon repair and rebuilding. He did up an old Reslo for me and it went from the junk drawer to being one of my favorite mics. It had many of the same issues as yours. The impedance of the reslo was way too low to be useful, the connector was even rarer than the one you need and the ribbon was toast. Stewart put in a new transformer (he builds them), converted the connector to XLR and did up the ribbon. It's a new mic and way, way more useful than it was (sounds much better too).

Here's a blog post of his on the V2 - http://xaudiaelektrik.blogspot.com/2014 ... sited.html

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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by vvv » Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:28 am

Has anyone tried one of those boosters like a Cloudlifter (I use the Cathedral Pipes version) onna hi-imp mic wired/adapted to XLR?
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:11 pm

I used a cloudlifter on my Reslo (pre-repairs) and my Altec salt shaker. Both have very low impedance. The cloudlifter helped but they sounded weird and noisy. An inline transformer on the Altec and a new transformer on the Reslo were a much better fix.

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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by ubertar » Tue Sep 21, 2021 5:26 am

I just took a look at my V2 to see what the connector is, but apparently before I bought it someone had rewired it to a cable with an XLR at the end. Which is something you should consider doing. If you know how to solder, this isn't brain surgery. If you don't, learn... it's a useful skill anyone using old electronics should have. I have an Altec birdcage that has a bizarre connector I don't even know what it's called. So I had to make one with metal rods for pins and epoxy putty for the base. It works. Connectors are just connectors... they connect things. There's no mystery to it.

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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by emrr » Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:02 am

Hi-Z can feed a direct box. Or those Radio Shack inline hi-z to low-z. Cloudlifter/etc isn’t high enough.

You’re sure this is a V2 that is a ribbon? I think there are versions with dynamic coil elements also.
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by Dubmaniac » Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:51 pm

emrr wrote:
Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:02 am

You’re sure this is a V2 that is a ribbon? I think there are versions with dynamic coil elements also.
No, it's a ribbon. I can see it through the grille cloth.
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by Dubmaniac » Sun Sep 26, 2021 12:20 pm

So I have good news and bad news. I was able to remove the goofy non-XLR 3 pin connector and use alligator clips to connect it to a cable and run it to my preamp. The good news is that it works. The bad news is that it sounds... not great. After recording myself reading some text and normalizing the waveform, it sounds very midrangey and has a slight grounding buzz. Is it useable? Well... maybe...? I'm at the point where I could either (a) send it out to someone to replace the ribbon, transformer, magnet and connector for God knows how much money or (b) leave it as it is and try to find a good use for it in the studio. Has anyone else had experience with redoing the guts of a ribbon microphone, and if so, how much did it cost and was it worth it? I'm very curious to hear your opinions before I do anything else.
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by digitaldrummer » Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:03 pm

Dubmaniac wrote:
Sun Sep 26, 2021 12:20 pm
Has anyone else had experience with redoing the guts of a ribbon microphone,
I think the blog Dave posted above pretty much lays it out (other than pricing). sounds like it needs a new ribbon motor (or magnets at very least) and new transformer... So what you may have is essentially a "donor" mic body at this point. you can probably get a nice new ribbon mic for about what you will spend to fix this one. but if you are up for the challenge or just like a project, then maybe its worth it?

https://www.bumblebeepro.com/shop-categ ... diy-parts/

https://diyribbonmic.com/parts/

https://microphone-parts.com/products/fhx-ribbon-kit (ridiculous price?)
Last edited by digitaldrummer on Mon Sep 27, 2021 6:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:42 pm

The level and hum may be impedance related. Are you running into a DI before the pre? If the mic is Hi Z it's quite likely also unbalanced. If your running it jumpered to an XLR connection and right into the pre that may be an issue.

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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by Nick Sevilla » Tue Sep 28, 2021 4:56 pm

I was gifted an EV v2 ribbon mic. Mine sounds fine as it is, because it was stored for a long time correctly, aka upright.

Since yours seems to sound "bad", I highly recommend you take yours to a competent tech to have it repaired, and for them to make you an adapter cable.

After that, you still need to run it through a DI before the mic preamp, or use a mic preamp that has a "guitar" input in it, as that is the same thing, just converting to lowZ.

Good luck!!!
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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by ubertar » Sat Oct 02, 2021 1:07 pm

Try doing the same thing but running it into a guitar amp, and speak into the mic. How does that sound? I think Dave MK is probably right. I wouldn't just jump to the conclusion that there's a problem with the ribbon or motor. On mine I can see through the grille to the ribbon and see it easily, I'm sure yours is the same, so you'd likely be able to tell if there's a problem with the ribbon. When you did the alligator clips, did you connect shield to the chassis to wire it balanced? Doing that might solve the problem as well.

If you decide to replace the transformer, I have some low-z ribbon transformers on hand and could let one go for, idk, 20 bucks or something.

I would expect a V2 to sound kind of midrangey anyway... these were never high-end mics. The hum you should be able to get rid of, though.

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Re: Vintage EV V2 ribbon microphone questions

Post by Dubmaniac » Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:32 pm

ubertar wrote:
Sat Oct 02, 2021 1:07 pm
Try doing the same thing but running it into a guitar amp, and speak into the mic. How does that sound? I think Dave MK is probably right. I wouldn't just jump to the conclusion that there's a problem with the ribbon or motor. On mine I can see through the grille to the ribbon and see it easily, I'm sure yours is the same, so you'd likely be able to tell if there's a problem with the ribbon. When you did the alligator clips, did you connect shield to the chassis to wire it balanced? Doing that might solve the problem as well.

If you decide to replace the transformer, I have some low-z ribbon transformers on hand and could let one go for, idk, 20 bucks or something.

I would expect a V2 to sound kind of midrangey anyway... these were never high-end mics. The hum you should be able to get rid of, though.
I'll try the guitar amp trick when I have some more time. You may be right about the sound being midrangey, though. Maybe I didn't know what to expect. If that's the case, what would be a good use for this mic? Guitar amps? Horns? As an old-timey effect on vocals? A decoration for my control room?
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