FAQ
Why buy a NUDE Microphone?
NUDE Microphones has well established working relationships with a range of microphone manufacturers. They build microphones for us to our bespoke specifications. The manufacturers are Chinese and East European and we buy vacuum tubes from Russia. NUDE’s value proposition is simple – Low Cost, Superb Sonic Quality Microphones. The advantage of buying NUDE microphones is that you are dealing direct with people who love microphones and are committed to offering exceptional microphones at an affordable price point.
Are These Microphones Chinese?
NUDE Microphones has manufacturing agreements with several Chinese manufacturing plants. Chinese manufacturing is often synonymous with poor quality. To some extent this is deserved. To some extent the Chinese have shot themselves in the foot in terms of positioning themselves fairly firmly at the value end of the market place. The truth lies somewhere in between. Chinese manufacturing has now matured to the point where I believe that they are capable of manufacturing microphones of sonic and build quality to rival any company globally. The question becomes at what price point do you want do you want the product delivered. We have several manufacturers now that we have great relationships with based on their commitment to good engineering principals, good quality control and together we are producing microphones that are sonically in the ballpark of branded microphones that retail for 10 times the price. Most importantly, like us, they actually love microphones.
Will I need a specific preamp for NUDE ribbon Microphones?
You will typically need more gain for ribbon microphones as the sensitivity is lower than dynamics or condensers. That said you should be able to crank the gain as the self-noise spec. of all NUDE Microphones is very good. Most buyers find their soundcard gain-range is sufficient. Many recording folks swear by their favorite preamp as adding that special "flavor". There are many preamps we recommend, at the high end we love Neve 1073's, LA audio and Avalon. At the lower end of the spectrum we highly recommend FMR RNP8380--Really Nice Mic-Pre. (Tip) Great wraps for there really nice compressor which is probably one of the nicest sounding, transparent operating compressors around especially in "super nice mode"! When considering preamps – check our Matching Mics and Preamps page here: https://www.nudemicrophones.com/pages/matching-microphones-and-preamps complete with calculator!
Do NUDE Microphones ship with spare ribbons?
No! It just doesn't make financial sense. Consider the price point of NUDE Microphones. If you added a spare ribbon and factored in the time and money required to have a suitably qualified technician fit and appropriately tension the replacement ribbon then suddenly you are no longer buying a lower cost ribbon microphone. One advantage of NUDE Microphones is our low price point. If the ribbon fails through damage/misuse (blown ribbon motor) or loss of tension over a long period of time then it is financially a better option to consider merely replacing the microphone. NUDE Microphones have now been in use in professional and project studios all over Australia for over 8 years and ship with optimized ribbon tension and continue to receive glowing reviews from buyers with respect to the build quality and sonic character of the microphones.
Are Ribbon Mics safe to use with Phantom Power?
The short answer is NO! All NUDE mics have a well-engineered differentially balanced, transformer isolated output stages. In theory modern ribbons should ignore phantom power for this reason...... However......As a general rule of thumb it is always a good idea to disable any phantom power supplies when using ribbons. There are a couple of fault conditions that exist with certain wiring topologies (mis-wired balanced to unbalanced leads) that can expose a ribbon to having +48v DC applied directly to the ribbon motor. If this happens, your finely tuned ribbon is being put into service as a little heater element! So try and avoid this at all costs. Disable individual channel phantom and if using a desk with a global supply, turn it off.
How can I tell which is the front of my NUDE Microphone?
We get asked this a lot! So much so that we’re considered adding a mark to our Tube microphones and to our Stereo Ribbon microphone – but we have resisted. We want to keep our mics aesthetically NUDE and believe that – Your Ears are the Great Arbiter – Trust them. If it sounds good chances are it is!