A Ribbon Mic for about €120, another Chinese cheap mic, I thought. Well, this one is different. These microphones are assembled in Belgium, and the quality check is much better than other Chinese mics.

The sound

What can I say? Great sound! I've tried it on electric guitar, together with a shure sm57. This was the sound I was looking for. Is it as good as a royer? I don't know. Do I care? No. It sounds very natural, really full, enough high-end, but without the harsh sounds you mostly get with cheap condenser mics.

On another session I tested them on drum OH's. I compared them with Audio Technica's 4081. They were both placed in a Glyn Johns set-up. Both were great sounding. But the LRM-1's were better. Maybe they aren't better in every situation, but in this case, they were. The audio technica's sounded brighter, a had a little bit less body. The LRM-1's were great. Enough highs, a lot of body, but never messy. They were less coloured than i expected, but that wasn't a bad thing.

Other things

The packaging was great, a box, with foam in it, inside the foam, a cover for the mic, and in that cover the mic. The only negative (and i had to think about that for a long time) is that there isn't a shockmount included. (The LRM-2 has one built-in, it's the upgraded version of this mic) But for this price, it's unbelievable how great these mics are. And the seller (JP Gerard) is a great guy. I recommend these microphones!!

Bought these as cheap Chinese ribbon mics -BUT they are not,
they are as good as it gets from the originals through the hands of J.P. Gerard in Belgium. Much liked around as do I!
You can choose transformers and be sure they are in top notch
when leaving him with his mods and no ribbons sagging etc.
He builds them at his shop as I understand it.

Matti

P.S. He has more stuff, check the site and ADK mics custom series also if I understand...