The Golden Age Project R1 MKII is a vintage-style passive ribbon microphone that, like the classics that inspired it, finesses voices and instruments with its naturally smooth, sweet, and velvety sound. Vocals and choral groups sound amazing through the R1 MKII. It's a revelation on electric guitar — and unlike vintage ribbons, it features 160dB SPL handling, so it won't self-destruct when placed in front of a cranked high-gain amp or a kick drum. The R1 MKII also excels on orchestral percussion, strings, and brass. And it's great at taming sources such as horns, banjo, and cymbals that can sound shrill with the wrong mic.
The Golden Age Project
The Golden Age Project was founded in 2005 on the belief that vintage gear sounds best, and the desire to pass on this sonic legacy to a new generation of musicians, engineers, and producers. All discrete, Class A signal paths with no integrated circuits; the use of transformers, stepped controls, and military-grade build quality: these are the cornerstones of the legendary British equipment deployed in world-class recording and broadcast studios in the 1970s — the Golden Age of analog. Fat, warm, punchy, and authoritative; this is the sound heard on countless hits for nigh unto half a century. Locating, purchasing, restoring, and maintaining vintage gear is time-consuming and costly. Fortunately, this small, family-owned Swedish company makes gear the same way it was made back in the day — at an amazingly gentle price.
A distributor of high-end studio equipment for many years, Golden Age Project founder Bo Medin wanted to be able to offer products with much of the same exclusive sound in a price range that made them available to a larger audience. Inspired by original designs, Golden Age uses modern technology to re-create that lush, opulent sound, making it surprisingly affordable. They use some modern ingenuity to add new functionality to superb classic designs and produce them in a cost-effective way which allows them to be both optimized and affordable. From outboard equipment to condenser, dynamic, and ribbon mics; you can outfit your entire studio with vintage-inspired Golden Age gear without exceeding your budget.
Features:
- Polar pattern: figure-8
- Frequency response: 30Hz–18kHz
- Maximum SPL: 160dB
- THD: < 1%
- Impedance: 600 ohms
- Load Impedance: 3000 ohms
- Sensitivity: -52dB at 1kHz
- Output connector: 3-pin XLR