Extinct Audio BoRbon

From Adam at Extinct Audio:

"The concept for the BoRbon was to make the smallest, lightest, best value microphone that we could - whilst still sounding great and fully built in the United Kingdom. To do this we used laser cutting techniques for the body, building the microphone up in layers of acrylic, wood and metal.

The BoRbons came together very quickly - we went from a germ of an idea to drawings to a pair of working prototypes in less than a week! I came into work one Tuesday morning to find Stew furiously cutting up bits of cardboard, and I knew right away that he was trying to get one of his designs out of his head and into the physical realm. We already had a prototype small ribbon motor that had been intended as a modern take on the British ribbons such as Grampian and Reslosound, who generally used 25mm (1 inch) ribbons in their microphones.

Stewart's first prototype was this small motor with a transformer sandwiched between five layers of cardboard. The next day I drew up the design from these layers and sent them to our laser cutting friends across the street. The parts were delivered on Friday morning and by lunchtime we had a pair of working BoRbon microphones. We borrowed the small output transformers from a pair of B&O BM6 mics, and optimised that transformer for the final products. We knew right away that we had a great sounding small, affordable ribbon microphone.

The design lends itself to variation - simply by swapping the material for the front and rear plates, we have made a range of different colours including tortoiseshell, gold sparkle and real walnut and oak woods. The latest mics were clear acrylic, which lets you see right inside the microphone."

MoMics note:

The name 'BoRbon' is a contraction of Beau Ribbon or Beautiful Ribbon. But it could also suggest that the microphone is a similar size and shape to a popular British biscuit.

Technical Specification:

• Output impedance = 200 ohms at 1KHz
• Directional Pattern: Offset figure-8 (the ribbon is 2mm closer to the
  front of the microphone.)
• Transducer Element:  Aluminum ribbon
• Frequency range: 50 Hz – 15 kHz @ ±6dB. (excludes proximity effect)
• Maximum SPL: 130dB @ 20 Hz
• Sensitivity: 1.6 mV/Pa, -56 dBv/Pa at 1 kHz
• Self noise (thermal): -132 dBV at 20ºC (20 kHz bandwidth).
• Signal to noise (1kHz at 1 Pa): 79 dB.
• Proximity effect: Strong
• Electronics: Passive. No power required
• Output configuration: Transformer balanced
• Output Connector: XLR3, Pin 2= +ve, Pin 3 = -ve, Pin 1 = Ground

A review of the BoRbon in Sound on Sound magazine.

Martin Mitchell's Microphone blog talks about the BoRbon

Recording Magazine reviews the Extinct Audio BoRbon.

Fabian Holland records guitar with the BoRbon Woody on YouTube.