Here’s an early Electrovoice velocity ribbon mic, model V1. These are great looking microphones, but the early versions are rather crudely made and this one, like many others, suffered from low output due to weakened magnets.

Bob Crowley has a few things to say about these mics – not all of them nice!

The motor of this model is based on a single cylindrical permanent magnet, clamped to a pair of metal plates which make up the pole pieces of the assembly. Because of the positioning of the magnet, the magnetic field is uneven, with a significant difference in field between the top and bottom of the motor assembly. In our example we found that the field varied from around 700 gauss at the bottom to 1000 gauss at the strongest point. This is very low for a ribbon mic, and, along with the oxidised ribbon is responsible for a low, noisy output.

Fortunately, we have sourced some very powerful cylindrical N42 neodynium magnets of a suitable size and shape, which are a perfect replacement for the original weak magnet.

With the new magnet the field is increased by a factor of around four, to about 3000-3200 gauss, a much healthier figure which should lead to an increased output and much improved signal-to-noise performance.

Now it’s time to cut a new ribbon, reassemble the microphone, and do some listening tests. In the meantime, we made a rather attractive bracelet from some of the spare magnets.