beyerdynamic M 160 Hypercardioid Double Ribbon Microphone

Product Reviews

OK, Its Bowies favorite live vocal mic, Andy John's captured Bonham's iconic drum room sound for "When the Levee Breaks" with a pair of these and Eddie Kramer used it on most of Hendrix's recordings.... and last and not least, hand assembled in Germany by the same woman for decades... I was told by a Beyer representative "when she stops making these they will stop being made"

The mic itself is a workhorse and unique in design having 2 ribbon elements on top of each other, the result is a hotter output and more consistent tone... It can handle loud SPLs and some even love it on a snare, very natural on overheads, cabinet and just as well a acoustic or cello. Great if you wanted to warm up a Taylor guitar or Trumpet.. not to mention excellent rear rejection, a rare welcomed quality for a ribbon. This is a great first mic if you wanted to get a pro grade ribbon as it will be most useful over other more traditional designs.. Its a studio must have...

By Charlie C on April 13, 2021

Great sounding microphone. Exceeded my expectations.

By Ollie on November 6, 2020

Depends what you are looking for.
This is not bright but I have found uses for it where nothing will get this sound. I also purchased an m130 (figure 8) to match up for M-S recording.

By Larry B on February 6, 2019

Im not a professional musician or audio engineer, but my buddies and I like to record some covers as a hobby. We play a lot of classic rock covers, Zeppelin, Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, etc. I was reading up on how they got some of those iconic drum and guitar tones and this mic came up time and time again, apparently it was the microphone of choice for Jimi Hendrix on his guitar and the mics used to get the huge John Bonham drum tone. We decided to add two of them to the mic collection and record some Zeppelin and Hendrix tunes. When I put it on the electric guitar, I was instantly pulled to the past, it was the closest my guitar rig has ever sounded to a classic recording. It had far more definition in the note attack than my previous microphone, and much warmer sounding with my Strat. When we did the drums, I had a mic on the kick and snare, then put the M160s farther back in the room. At first I wasnt getting that huge tone, but once I learned what compression was those two mics sounded bigger than anything we tried recording before. Im really glad we added these mics to the setup, finally able to make some recordings that sound like my heroes.

By Pete N on May 11, 2017

I run a medium-low budget project studio, but my studio has a few high-end preamps and excellent conversion. After purchasing this mic with an M130 and AEA TRP preamp for primarily acoustic guitars, I knew ahead of time that this mic would get a lot of use on other sources. I'm a horn specialist & multi-instrumentalist. Recently I tracked my tenor sax with this mic, and I was seriously floored with the sound. The tracks on tenor sax was like something you'd hear on any top-notch modern jazz or pop album. Overdubbing solos & horn-lines to beach-music type tunes, I honestly didn't need any EQ or compression - the tracks were that even, smooth & natural. I have a music partner who does a lot of songwriting, and he's tracked entire demos with just this one mic. Now, I just have to keep myself from taking this mic out of the studio to live gigs! I will buy another as soon as finances allow. Definitely a 'work-horse' mic. BTW, the gain & clarity on the AEA is amazing on these ribbon mics. I'll be trying the AEA on dynamics & tube condensers soon.

By Charles on February 22, 2017

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