The sound of this mic has the potential to be great, but the mechanical resonance of the headbasket tends to add a layer of inharmonic distortion that obscures the pure sound the ribbon motor is capable of producing. In addition, several layers of wind blast protection create a band pass filter that rolls off both extreme top and bottom end response. The stock transformer is no match for a specialty ribbon mic transformer from Cinemag or Lundahl.

The biggest drawback to this mic is its size - there is no shock mount available for it. Given its propensity to mechanical resonance a shock mount would be a welcome addition.

Plug and play baby.

In my business, I've had the opportunity to examine nearly one hundred Chinese manufactured ribbon mics like the Nady RSM-2. I've found that 30-40% of them have extremely slack ribbon tension - the ribbon actually sagging out of the magnet gap over 80% of its length. This causes low output and distortion. Once way to check for slack ribbon tension (if you own one of these mics) is to listen in headphones as you rock the mic back and forth. A ribbon that is too slack will produce a metallic "clanging" sound as if flops back and forth across the gap. This should be repaired.

If you get a mic with proper ribbon tension the value is just OK. If the mic turns out to have a slack ribbon the value drops.

No experience.

Professional microphone modification

Ambient

This ribbon has a very smooth high end, with a fairly flat overall response. I've used it on various things. I like it on my voice, trombone, acoustic guitar, and cello. It sounded a little odd on trumpet, but most of that is probably my room and reflection issues.

It might be nice if the cable were removable, though in a way, it is better that it isn't, since unplugging a cable on the mic might shake things up enough to hurt the ribbon. That said, it would be nice if there were some such mechanism for replacing the cable when it eventually wears out without dismantling the mic. Another useful feature would be better internal shock dampening. It rings loudly if you bump the mic stand. Quite annoying for a device that is otherwise such a nice piece of hardware.

My current one is just fine, but it was a replacement for one that had a washer bouncing around inside it when I got it. There are definitely manufacturing quality control issues that would have to be addressed before I could give Nady's products solid marks in quality. Now that I have one that wasn't defective out of the box, though, it seems to be a solid performer.

For this price, this is a really great mic. I'm sure it's no Royer, but you'd have a hard time beating it for a lot of uses at its price point.

Hobbyist recording engineer/musician, computer programmer (some audio)

various