Recording - April 2014 - 26

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

AEA N22

Ribbon Microphone

The masters of old-school ribbon design bring us a new way to "ribbon"
Audio Engineering Associates (AEA) is famous
and well-respected for its Big Ribbon mic designs,
handmade in Pasadena, CA, which mimic-or,
more often these days, modernize and revitalize-
vintage microphone construction methods used by
RCA. So when AEA announces an entirely new mic
design, heads are going to turn. I was eager to try
the N22, the first mic in AEA's Nuvo ("nouveau",
French for "new") mic line.
Nuvo style, old soul
The most obvious "nouveau" trait of the N22 is its
appearance. Its champagne-silver finished body is
just shy of 9" tall and a tad more than 11/2" diameter; it is the smallest microphone to ever grace AEA's
lineup, looking nothing like AEA's R series mics.
The N22's ribbon is surrounded by an internal steel
spring cage with multiple layers of specialized blast
protection fabric similar to that found on the R92
(reviewed February 2006). Unlike the rest of the AEA
family, it features no built-in mic mount or shock mounting. Instead it comes with a rubber shockmounted mic
clip. The package also includes a plastic foam-lined
case and a felt mic bag.
While the N22 is visually new, it has an old soul-
it makes use of the same classic large ribbon pressure-gradient transducer found in AEA's other figure8 mics. The N22 is a phantom-powered ribbon mic;
instead of using an amplifier circuit for stable impedance and makeup gain, it uses a custom-made stepup transformer similar to the one found in AEA's
phantom-powered A840, only more compact.
The N22 has a < 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency
range, a 141 dB SPL (1% third harmonic at 1 kHz),
a sensitivity of 6.2 mV/Pa (at 1 kHz, no load), a
rated impedance of 92 ohms broadband and a rated
load impedance of 1.0 kilohm or greater. While
more or less flat from 1 kHz to 5 kHz with occasional peaks and valleys, its low end rolls off gently from
900 Hz slowly on down, and its high end dips much
more quickly around 6 kHz.
Nuvo sound
Where the N22 differs not only from its siblings,
but from almost every other ribbon mic on the market, is in its sound!
AEA's tag line for the N22 is that it is "specifically
designed for singer-songwriters, musicians and home
studios." One of the sonic aims of the N22 was to
have a ribbon mic that was as easy to use and place
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RECORDING April 2014

as a typical condenser mic. As such, it offers
a very restrained low-end proximity effect
and a slightly tweaked upper-mid presence.
Challenges and solutions
The N22 was designed to tackle a number of ribbon-related issues. For example,
traditional ribbons are sensitive to air blasts
and have to be placed carefully to protect
them from damage. Like most figure-8 mics,
ribbons have a huge proximity effect. Put
those together and you get a mic that likes
its space, one that is often used at a healthy
distance from sources, used on drum overheads, on vocals and horns, or used as a
room mic.
Passive ribbons tend to have a very low
output and a sensitivity to impedance matching; they need a mic preamp with lots of
clean gain and appropriate impedance, like
AEA's own TRP (reviewed March 2007) and
RPQ 500 (reviewed August 2012).
Last but not least, the flat, natural, and honest sound of a good ribbon mic is often called
warm, smoky, smooth, or whatever we think
"vintage" is supposed to sound like. This is
because decades of exposure to the open airy
sound of condenser mics that typically offer
pushed midranges and significantly hyped top
ends has conditioned us to think of this openness and crispness as "real and honest".
The N22 went through a long period of testing to tweak out the proper voicing with a very
subdued proximity effect that, as with many
condenser mics, only becomes noticeable
when it is very close up on a source. Its screening was chosen to allow the mic to be used on
vocals without a pop shield; this screening also
contributes greatly to the mic's overall sound.
In use
When the N22 arrived, I put it to work on
drum overhead, kick drum, cajon, tambourines, shakers, electric guitar cabinet,
cello, violin, piano, male and female vocals,
steel-string acoustic guitar, and even a male
opera singer!
I tried it with my Millennia Media and
Chandler Limited mic preamps, as well as
the built-in preamps on a couple of lower-end
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